Naruto Wandering Demon
by Born From a NaruSaku Lemon
Summary: Sakura was captured returning from a mission by demons and her team pretty much left her there. Naruto, a wandering demon, rescues her and she decides to go with him and leave her village. AU. NaruSaku.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is my first fan-fiction, so if there are any mistakes, please tell me. Okay, this is a NaruSaku fic. Might end up just being a one-shot. This story is AU.

Summary: Sakura was captured, returning from a mission, by demons and her team pretty much abandoned her there. Naruto, a wandering demon, rescues her and she decides to go with him leaving her village. What happens during their travels? Let's find out.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... Oh well, it would be too troublesome anyways...

"Speech."

_'__Thought'_

'_**Inner Sakura'**_

**"Demon Speech"  
**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

_Chapter One: Come With Me?_

**  
**_  
_Haruno Sakura was a typical fifteen year old girl from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konohagakure. She shopped, she talked with friends, she was obsessed with Sasuke, and she was a ninja. Yep your typical Konoha female.

Why is this normal you may ask? Because, Konohagakure is a ninja village. One of the five superpowers in the ninja world.

A ninja village receives several mission requests each day, ranging from simple D-rank missions, such as catching lost pets, to complex B-rank missions to assassinate someone. Then there were 'S' and A-rank missions to destroy demons that were terrorizing villages.

Demons are also ranked in classes. 'D' through B-class demons could be taken care of by ninja of low jonin or lower, while A-class demons needed mid-jonin and higher to be destroyed. Also there were demons so strong they were classified as S-class demons. Demons such as the One Tail Raccoon demon, Shukaku, and the Nine Tailed Fox demon, Kyuubi. Those types were almost invincible.

As a ninja, Sakura has had her fair share of battles against demons. Hell, she was almost raped by one on her last mission, but her substitute sensei saved her just in time. That's were we find her now, on her way home from her mission with her teammates, Uchiha Sasuke, Sai, and their substitute sensei, Gekko Hayate; since their regular sensei had an A-rank mission to go on.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, you were so cool during that mission. You want to go on a date with me when we get home?" Sakura asked. She was dressed in a red shirt, the slightly loose article of clothing was unable to completely hide her fair sized breasts, and dark blue spandex shorts, revealing long slender legs, a white skirt over her shorts. Her pink hair reached just a little below her chin, a headband with a metal plate engraved with a leaf held her hair from hanging in front of her face, instead framing it, and her eyes were as green as emeralds_._

Sasuke, who was getting annoyed by her constant date requests, answered with a simple, "No," and continued walking, leaving a dejected Sakura behind. He was wearing a black sleeveless form fitting shirt, a red and white fan displayed proudly on his back, and a pair of loose gray shorts, reaching slightly past his knees. His kunai holster was on his right hip and his shuriken holster on his left. His right arm was wrapped in bandages and two belts, covering his fist and reaching to a little past his elbow, his legs were wrapped similarly, from the ankles up to just below his knees. He had black spiky hair, spiked at the back with two long bangs on the sides of his face, and charcoal colored eyes.

Sasuke was an Uchiha, which meant he had a blood line limit, or kekkei genkai, called the sharingan. This was a doujutsu that allowed him to copy and hypnotize his opponent, whether they were human or demon, making him a strong ninja who was expected to do great things. His entire clan had been killed by his older brother, Uchiha Itachi, leaving him to avenge and rebuild his clan. That was the main reason why he never accepted any date requests, since he was too busy training to kill his brother.

Their other teammate, Sai, was watching the short almost one-sided exchange while wearing a false smile on his face. He wore a black shirt had one sleeve reach his wrist, while the other only reached to around his elbow, and only covered his upper chest leaving his stomach exposed, plus he wore black pants and had a katana on his back. His face looked remarkably similar to Sasuke's. The only difference being his hair was short and went down while Sasuke's was long and spiked to the back.

Sai was, unknown to the rest, an undercover ANBU from ROOTS assigned to protect the Uchiha, should he ever be in danger. He decided to help Sakura with Sasuke, since she could be used to help reproduce the Uchiha clan so he said, "Come on, Sasuke, give her a chance. She's been asking you to go out with her for three years, it's obvious she really likes you so you should give her a chance."

"No," Sasuke responded without missing a beat, continuing to walk ahead of them.

'_Huh, did Sai just try to help me?'_ Sakura thought to herself, not surprised when she received a response.

'_**Yeah, but too bad it didn't help at all!'**_ yelled inner Sakura inside of Sakura's head. Inner Sakura was a manifestation of Sakura's pent up thoughts and emotions, since while she was around Sasuke, which was almost all the time, she behaved how she thought Sasuke would want her to behave.

'_Yeah too bad,' _thought Sakura. _'Still we'll keep trying until he finally cracks.'_

'_**Yeah, don't give up!'**_ cheered inner Sakura.

"Come on, please Sasuke-kun. Just one date, and I'll never bother you again. Huh? What do you say, just one. Please?" begged Sakura hoping he would finally crack.

Sasuke was getting fed up with her and decided to end it once and for all.

"Look, I don't like you, okay? So quit asking for a date, because you're not going to get one. Just leave me alone. You're annoying. And another thing, you're useless, you can barely even fight, and that makes you a burden on all of us." He stated, his voice dripping with held back anger, causing her to stop, turn around, and run off crying.

As she was running, Sai and Hayate looked at Sasuke with disappointment on their faces.

Even Sai, who was normally emotionless, felt sorry for the girl and angry at Sasuke. All she wanted was a date and he berated her, saying more than was necessary.

Sasuke, noticing their glances, looked at them and asked, "What," like he had no idea why they would look at him like that, before turning and beginning to walk again, not caring if they followed or not; they were close enough to the village that they could see the Hokage monument, so he thought he could go ahead. Sai just sighed and went to look for Sakura with Hayate close behind.

**----- Near a lake with Sakura -----**

Sakura had stopped running when she reached a lake and collapsed while still crying.

"W-Well, he finally cracked... just not the way I-I was... h-hoping for..." She cried, wiping her tears with the underside of her arm.

She just couldn't believe Sasuke, the boy she thought she loved, hated her. "Th-This day can't get any w-worse." she sobbed, only to be proven wrong when a fairly large red ogre looking demon came out from the forest, staring hungrily at her. As she was about to get up and run, five human sized demons grabbed her from behind and pointed their claws at some of her vitals.

_'__Oh, god, I'm going to die.' _she thought, unable to believe her luck. _'__No, I don't want to die yet, please some one help me.'_ Sakura mentally pleaded.

Just then, she heard someone call her name, making her turn her head to the side where she could see Sai and Hayate running towards her. To say Sakura was relieved would be an understatement. Then, Sai turned around and started to run of in the opposite direction

'_Where is he going? He's abandoning me, that bastard! If I get out of this alive, and I see him again, I'm going to kill him!' _the rosette thought, angrily.

**'**_A__**t least he sort of came looking for you, or didn't you notice Sasuke didn't even come - not that I'm saying Sai's any better, the way he just ran off like that - but he still came looking to find you.'**_ Inner Sakura reminded her.

'_Only to run away at the sight of demons.' _finished Sakura for her inner, who just nodded inside her head.

While Sakura was busy thinking, the smaller demons had been fighting Hayate. As the demons charged, Hayate grabbed some shuriken and kunai and threw one of each at each demon, making a total of 10 projectiles flying towards the demons. Two of them didn't dodge and got stabbed in the head and heart, but the other ones dodged or blocked them and continued their assault.

When they were close enough, Hayate tried to slash at them with a kunai. While he did get one on the arm, the other two just jumped over him and stabbed their claws through one of his lungs each. Sakura watched in horror as her substitute sensei was killed right in front of her. Then the demons pulled their arms out of the lifeless Hayate and turned to look at her. Sakura, through that whole experience, was being held down by the bigger demon, his large hands grabbing her shoulders. As they got closer one of them began to speak.

"**Hey, boss, what should we do with her?"** asked the one to the left; he was nursing his wound on his arm, the purple blood leaking out slower with each passing second..

"**Hey, maybe we should eat her."** suggested the one to the right, smiling maliciously and licking his lips, his long tongue almost reaching his nostril.

At this, Sakura grew scared. '_Crap, I really am going to die," _she thought.

"**No, we're going to have some fun with her, boys." **said the bigger demon, the one who was holding her, one of his thumbs rubbing up and down her back.

Sakura began to panic when she heard the demon leader's intentions, trying to move herself away from the offending thumb as it began circling over her back. '_No, anything but that, I'd rather die,' _she thought.

"**Good idea, boss. May I get her first." **questioned the one in the middle, a slight bulge protruding from the cloth he wore around his waist.

"**Sure, why not."** the larger demon responded, lifting her up and holding her out, like some sort of present. Here's where she started to struggle as hard as she could against the large demon.

"No! Let me go! Please don't rape me! I'd rather die!" She yelled at the top of her lunges. As she yelled, they only started laughing.

"**Sure, okay, we'll kill you… after we've had our fun."** Said the one in the middle as he reached for her skirt, ripping it off roughly, making it snap from the straps. Then he reached towards her shorts to pull them down, trying to ignore her legs as they swung wildly, but as his hands were nearing her, they were suddenly cut off. **"What the fuck!"**the demon screamed in pain as he fell to his knees. The other demons began looking for whoever had done that when they all heard a cold voice come from behind them.

"I suggest you get out of here, and leave the girl alone, before I decide to kill all of you." Said the figure behind them, well, now in front seeing as they had turned around. He was wearing a dark gray cloak with the hood over his head, covering the upper part of his face with the shadow that was created, however small fangs could be seen coming out from his upper lip.

When Sakura saw him, she was instantly happy. '_Yes, someone came to save me!' _She thought.

The stranger lifted his head and spoke again in the same icy cold tone. "Hey, didn't you hear me? I said leave, and let her go, or you die." One of the demons laughed mockingly.

**"You act l****ike as if we're scared of you, fucking human. You only hit him because we were distracted!"** Yelled the larger of the demons, laughing at the newcomer, shortly joined by his little henchmen.

Said newcomer just sighed before disappearing, only to reappear two seconds later, followed by the thumps that signified the death of the three smaller demons, their purple blood spraying into the air from the holes on their necks, where their throats were supposed to be.

After that display of power and speed from the new comer, the larger demon was overcome with fear. Slowly, he put Sakura down and backed up a few steps. Once he was a good distance away, he spoke, **"Alright, she's free, and I'm leaving, okay? Everything's cool, rig—"**

His sentence was cut off as he grunted, coughing up a bit of blood. Looking down, he saw the stranger's arm was impaled in his chest."**I thought you sai-" **He was again interrupted, this time by the stranger's cold voice.

"I know what I said, but the moment you thought yourself stronger 'cause you assumed I was human, was when sealed your fate." he said, smirking as he pulled his arm out of the large demon.

**"****Wait... are you saying... that you aren't human? Then you're a demon?"** Asked the dying demon.

"Of course I am, not like you. You guys were so weak, you should consider yourselves human." the stranger answered before shaking his head. "It's pitiful, really. Such a waste of demon blood. Oh well, guess it can't be helped." He said as the large demon took his dying breath, falling face down into a pool of his own blood.

Sakura, who had been watching and listening, was shocked to hear her savior was a demon himself, and that he called the demons that killed her substitute sensei weak enough they should consider themselves human

'_Those other demons had to be at least high 'C' to mid B-ranked or higher if they took down Hayate-sensei so easily.' _she thought. She was beginning to grow scared again that maybe this demon might try to kill her, or worse.

She knew she'd be no match if he did try this, as she couldn't even beat the other demons and this demon was in a whole different league. '_Probably high B-rank… at least, I hope that's as strong as he is because if he's A-rank I'm screwed.' _she thought. '_I've got to get out of here qui—'_ she was brought out of her thoughts as she realized the demon had asked her a question. "W-What did you say?" she asked cautiously.

"I asked if you were okay? Do you have any injuries?" he asked, with what sounded like concern to her.

She quickly checked for any cuts or bruises, and found one on her left hip from when one of the demons had ripped off her skirt. She put her hand over it and found it really hurt; she must have not noticed it before since she was too worried about getting raped.

'_Huh. Twice this week I was almost raped by a demon, and twice I was saved.' _she thought to herself. Then she noticed the strange demon was applying some sort of ointment on her wound. She also noticed he was touching her softly, delicately. Then he finished and pulled his hand away, seeing as the wound had closed, at which Sakura was a little disappointed, as she like how his hand felt as he touched her hip.

She quickly snapped out of it when he lowered his hood revealing the most human looking demon she had ever seen. He had spiky, bright yellow hair, long enough that his bangs almost covered his eyes, while his ears were completely covered, three whisker marks on each cheek and the most beautiful blue eyes that she had ever seen. As soon as she looked into those eyes, she was lost in them.

He seemed to notice this but he didn't seem to mind as he just grinned, and when he grinned, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach begin to flutter out of control and she could also feel blood rushing to her cheeks. Then he spoke, but not with that cold voice he used with the demon, but with a nice calm voice that just increased the fluttering in her stomach.

"Hey, so... what's your name?" he asked.

Sakura, startled by his question, responded by asking, "Why?"

He merely shrugged, "I dunno, just curious."

Sensing no deceit in his voice, she answered him. "Sakura, Haruno Sakura."

He nodded, closing his eyes, smiling. "That's a nice name," he said, causing her to blush again. Then he continued "Mine's Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto."

As soon as he said that, inner Sakura came out again. '_**Uzumaki Sakura. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it.'**_ she asked, to which Sakura mentally agreed before she even thought about it. Then, realizing what she'd done, she tried to argue about it, only succeeding in making inner Sakura laugh.

'_It really does have a nice ring to it.'_ Sakura thought, afterwards.

'_**I heard that!'**_yelled her inner self, making Sakura blush lightly.

While she was talking to her inner, Naruto took off his cloak to reveal a black sleeveless shirt, over which he wore an orange jacket, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, with fire patterns traveling up the sides, and a pair of orange pants that fit him loosely. He also had what seemed to be a back pack that looked pretty filled up. When Sakura noticed his muscular build she couldn't help but blush. Especially with the images her inner kept sending her. She shook her head slightly to rid herself of the images.

She looked up towards Naruto, watching him as leaned against a tree, a carefree expression on his face. She smiled at him. "Hey, Naruto?" she asked carefully to gain his attention before she continued, "I was just wondering, if you're a demon how come you saved me; not that I'm complaining, just curious."

"You know what, I don't know why." he answered, noticing that her face seemed to sadden a bit.

'_I knew he didn't save me cause he liked me he saved me cause he just happened to be walking by.' _she thought sadly, not knowing why she felt sad. She looked up when he continued.

"I guess it's 'cause I hate demons that rape people just 'cause its 'fun.' They're a disgrace too the rest of us demons... Plus I would hate seeing such pretty girl in pain." he said, looking at her smiling, blushing face. '_At least she isn't sad anymore. I hate it when girls are sad, especially if it's my fault. Why did my mother have to teach me to 'respect' girls?' _Naruto asked himself, mentally groaning.

'_He called me pretty... Maybe he does like me.' _Thought an ecstatic Sakura, making she her face wasn't as red when she asked her next question. "Also, how come you helped with my wound, Naruto?" She asked to see if he just wanted to have an excuse to touch her.

"What's with all the questions, huh?" he asked, acting annoyed, but still smiled and answered her truthfully. "Well my mom kind of brain washed me into 'respecting girls' and protecting them and stuff," he began and once again she saddened but what he said next made her scream on the inside since he finished by adding, "and I kinda wanted to see if your skin was as soft as it looked.

"You know, my mother's remedy works as soon as you apply it, I just liked the way your skin felt." When he finished he looked away trying to hide his smirk, as well as a slight blush. This was new territory for him.

'_G-girls are so easy to trick.' _he thought to himself. Then he thought of a way to get back at her for all her damned questions. "So… why were you out here all alone? Were you _trying_ to get raped?"

Sakura got extremely sad after his question, which was a surprise to Naruto, as he was just going to mess around with her, not make her so sad, but just as he was going to say something, she began to speak.

"Well, as you can see by my headband, I'm a Konoha Kunoichi... And while I was returning from a mission, some really, really, _really_ dumb guy made me sad, so I came here to think about stuff... but then those demons attacked me. Then I saw some of my teammates coming to help me then as soon as one of them noticed the demons he turned around and left," here, she noticed Naruto was a little upset, "but my substitute sensei kept coming to help me, and managed to kill two of the demons but then, while taking on the other three, he was stabbed through his back and killed."

At that moment, Sakura got teary eyed, unable to hold back the guilt, which made Naruto get up and hug her, trying to calm her down, whispering in her ear. "It's Okay..." he soothed, allowing her to cry on his shoulder, "it wasn't your fault." His comment only served to get her even more depressed.

"Y-yes it is m-my fault. B-because of m-me, Hayate-sensei is d-dead." she sobbed. She continued to cry for a good ten minutes on his shoulder.

Naruto was fed up with her crying for two reasons. One; it wasn't her fault that that 'Hay-something' guy was dead since he chose to help her, and two; her crying was hurting his sensitive ears.

"Shh... Sakura it isn't your fault, he chose to help you. He could have chosen to leave with your other teammate, but he didn't. So remember, it's not your fault. He chose to fight five C-class demons and a B-class one alone. No one made him do it. Now please stop crying, it hurts me when you cry."

Sakura stop when she heard that. She turned and saw that Naruto had a pained expression. "Really?" she asked, softly.

"Yeah. I mean, you have to remember, just cause I'm a demon, doesn't mean I don't feel anything." he answered. She looked up at him in awe, that was, until he continued, "When you cry, you make so much noise it hurts my ears." he let go of her to cover the side of his head, over his ears, making Sakura's eyebrow twitch a little as she smacked him on the side of his head.

"You idiot!" she yelled causing him to cover his ears again in pain. Of course she noticed this and took advantage of it. "I was hoping you said it hurt cause you liked me!" she yelled, not knowing what she said until after she said it, and covered her mouth. Lucky for her all Naruto seemed to hear at that moment was an annoying ringing in his ears.

Naruto was holding his ears, trying to no avail to make the ringing go away. He noticed that Sakura's lips were moving but he couldn't hear anything. "What was that, Sakura? I couldn't hear you. Damn, I think I've gone deaf. What the hell, Sakura, you didn't have to make me deaf." he stated in a whinny little voice that she thought was kinda cute.

"Shut up, I didn't make you deaf. And besides, if you were deaf then you wouldn't have to hear me cry anymore." she said with a smile on her face.

"What!?" he yelled at which Sakura sweat dropped. "Damn it, Sakura, stop taunting me and help me!"

"And what do you want me to do!" she yelled back at him.

"What!? Never mind I'm sure that was some sly comeback. Anyways, just go to my pack and pull out the small gray bottle that looks like dango, but without the stick." he requested. Another sweat drop later, Sakura was kneeling down near his bag, looking for the damned bottle.

It took a full three minutes to find it. Three agonizing, ear splitting minutes for Naruto, who suspected she was taking her sweet time. Then she finally came back and handed him the bottle, which he handed right back to her. She looked up at him; since he was a good 5 inches taller than her and gave him a confused look to which he answered, "I need you to do it since I can't see up there."

"Up there? But your ears are on the side of your head, aren't they?" Sakura asked, confused.

"What!?" he yelled. "Look just sit down on the ground and I'll put my head on your lap alright?" He asked in his normal voice.

Sakura blushed at the thought of Naruto's head on her lap, but before she could protest, an impatient Naruto set her on the grass and put his head on her thigh. The feel and sight of him there made Sakura blush as she opened the bottle and tried to grab his ear on the side of his head, but couldn't find it. She looked at him confused again and he simply pointed to the top of his head. When she looked at the top of his head she just had to squeal at what she saw—thankfully Naruto was already unable to hear..

There, on top of his head, were a pair of the cutest yellow fox ears which, since she was shorter than him, she hadn't noticed before. They just fit in with his spiky yellow hair so much that they didn't stand out too much. They were so cute that she just had to—but she didn't want to seem rude—but she wanted to—but what if he got mad?

_'Ah,_ _the heck with it!'_ and with that said, well thought, she reached down and grabbed one of his ears gently and began to scratch it.

Naruto was getting impatient and was about to tell her to hurry up when he felt something grab his ear and begin to _scratch it?_

'_What the fuck?' _he thought, slowly but surely beginning to fall asleep. After a while, before he was about to fall asleep, he opened one drowsy blue eye to stare at Sakura, who was just sitting there, smiling, while she looked down at him.

"Sakura... not that I mind or anything, but... is there a reason you're scratching my ear when you're supposed to be putting medicine in it?" he questioned sleepily.

'_**Busted!'**_ inner Sakura shouted, laughing her ass off.

'_Shut up.' _ Sakura mentally shouted back at her inner, who became quiet in a couple of seconds. '_Alright, one problem down. Now, how do I explain this to Naruto.' _she thought frantically, but couldn't think of anything so decided to tell the truth.

"Well, you see ….it's just that they were so cute, I wanted to touch them and I couldn't resist. I'm sorry, Naruto. Please don't be mad, I promise I'll never do it again." she ended her apology, looking away sadly, waiting to hear his response.

"What? Um... Sakura, could you please hurry up and put the medicine in so I can hear want it is you're saying." he said in an impatient kind of tone, after which Sakura got the bottle and put it close to his ear. Then she realized she didn't know how much or how little to put in so she sent him a questioning glance, which he caught and understood immediately as he responded by saying,"Three drops each."

After that she carefully put in exactly three drops in each ear. "Alright, now we wait about an hour or so and I should be able to hear again," he paused before chuckling, "unless I really am deaf, in which case I'm screwed."

During that hour, Sakura just sat and thought about what had happened that day, and how she met the handsome blond demon currently using her lap as a pillow. Eventually, she remembered the incident about the ears, and how she'd have to explain again. She wasn't looking forward to that because if he found it stupid, he could kill her. Or rape her. Although the more she thought about the latter, the less she feared it, _if_ it was done by the blond haired demon using her lap as a cushion.

'_What am I saying? Of course it would still be bad.' _she thought.

'_**Stop lying. You know you would throw yourself at him if he even mentioned 'sex' and there is no point denying it.'**_ inner Sakura commented.

That statement made Sakura blush a deep red blush that had gone unnoticed by Naruto as he was currently concentrating on trying to listen with his ears again. '_Come on… I can hear faint noises… the river…some birds… Sakura's breathing…wait, what?…Yeah I can hear her breathing, her heart beat... I just heard her gulp... Yeah, I can hear again!' _thought an ecstatic Naruto.

As soon as he found out he could hear again, he opened his eyes and found that Sakura looking down at him, apparently anxious to see if he could hear again. He smiled and just nodded his head which in turn made her smile too. Then, Naruto remembered the ear thing from earlier.

"Okay, Sakura, now that we know I can hear, I want to hear why you were scratching my ear earlier." Naruto said, grinning slightly.

As soon as he said that she looked to the side, a bit hesitant but then took a deep breath and began telling him.

"Well… um.... you see…. it's just that your ears looked so cute, and I just wanted to see how they felt and I couldn't resist… I'm sorry, Naruto. Please don't be mad at me, I promise I won't do it ever again." she said, a really sad look on her face as she looked down.

She wouldn't let him see it, but by the salty scent in the air, he could tell she was tearing.

"Don't cry Sakura. I'm not mad. I liked it when you were scratching my ear. It was just cause my ears were bugging me and I wanted the beeping sound to stop. Trust me, if it hadn't been for my ears, I wouldn't have said anything." He finished, sitting up, grabbing her chin with his thumb and index fingers, and pulling her face up to see him.

As soon as she felt his fingers on her chin, her heart began to beat faster than ever. When she met his eyes they looked softer, and every second they seemed closer and closer, until their lips touched for the first time. They closed their eyes and after a while she could feel something wet along her bottom lip. She knew it was his tongue asking permission to enter and she happily let him.

She felt his arms encircle her waist and she responded by wrapping her arms around his neck, one hand moving through his unruly golden hair, the other going to scratch his ear, which caused him to growl into the kiss. While she was preoccupied with that, his hands started to move downward until he reached her soft yet firm ass, and he gave it a light squeeze causing her to moan into the kiss. After a little longer they separated for air; mostly for Sakura since Naruto could go an extra three minutes.

Sakura couldn't believe it. Her first kiss, and it was with a hot demon no less. _'Wait till everyone at home finds out about this.'_ she thought, blushing.

That was when it hit her… home! She looked up to see the sky already at sunset. It was beautiful, but she had to get home. Her parents were probably worried sick about her, especially with what Sai must have reported by now about the demon attack, and Hayate-sensei left alone to fight.

They were sure to worry… right? If so where was the search party, the reinforcements, at least a small recovery group? It had been about three hours, give or take a few minutes, since Sai left towards Konoha. Yet still nothing, was she really that much of a burden to them that they didn't care if she was alive or not? She felt herself get teary, _again._

'_God, no wonder they want me gone, all I ever do is cry all the time.'_ she thought miserably as tears escaped her eyes and slid down her cheeks.

Naruto had just broken the kiss to let Sakura get some air while he thought about some things; mainly her. So imagine his surprise when she started crying and, of course, he thought it was his fault.

'_Damn. I thought that she enjoyed it, but I guess she just went along with it cause she thought I would kill her. But I wouldn't be able to do that, not after falling in love with the girl.' _he thought sadly.

Naruto got up, walked to his stuff, and started to get ready to leave.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. If you didn't want the kiss, you should have told me instead of trying to bear through it." Naruto spoke, his back to her while he packed. Sakura just looked on in confusion as he spoke. He turned around and smiled sadly, "I didn't mean to make you cry."

Suddenly it made sense why he would think that she didn't want to kiss, and that made her feel worse. She had to tell him that it wasn't the kiss that made her sad.

"Wait, Naruto!" she yelled. That stopped him, and he gave her his undivided attention. "It wasn't the kiss that made feel sad, it actually felt really good and I liked it very much." she said and noticed that made him smile, which made her smile too.

She liked that smile it seemed to represent pure happiness, so she continued. "It's just that it's been three and a half hours already and they haven't even sent a search party, or anything, to look for me. I guess that dumb boy was right, I am a burden. So m-much that they don't want m-me back." she said as she began to break down.

Before she fell, Naruto was embracing her, letting her cry on his shoulder, not minding that it hurt his ears, because it hurt his heart more to see her like that. She continued to cry, until she remembered what happened the last time they were in the same position. "N-Naruto," she sniffed, "what are you d-doing? I thought your ears... were sensitive and couldn't take the noise of me crying?" she asked.

Naruto just looked down at her, and gave her a small kiss. "It does hurt but," he kissed her lightly again, "it's nothing to the pain in my _heart_ when I see you cry." he said, smiling; she returned the smile, plus the kiss he gave her when she smiled. "Sakura... I know you have family and friends in your village but... I want you to come with me, please?" he asked.

Sakura gasped at the request. It had been less than half a day since they met, yet she _really wanted_ to go with him. Still, there was a small part that wasn't sure if she should go or not. That small part was bound and gagged by inner Sakura.

_**'**__**Go with him, girl. It's obvious he loves you. If his answer to your last question doesn't mean true love, then I don't know what does. And besides the feelings you have for Naruto make that Sasuke crush seem like you hated him all along. Even though you hate him now. So I say you go!'**_encouraged inner Sakura.

Sakura nodded mentally. She made a good point. The feelings she had for Naruto were strong, stronger than anything she had ever felt for anyone else, and she just met him a little while ago. There was no ignoring these feelings, she was going to listen to them, and since all but one seemed to tell her to go with him, she obeyed.

Sakura nodded her head in a 'yes' manner. "Okay, Naruto," she answered him. He smiled wider than she'd seen him smile so far, before kissing her passionately and she returned it with just as much passion.

When they broke apart he took of his back pack and turned around so his back was towards her and got down on one knee. "Hop on," he said. Sakura now figuring out what he was doing and shook her head in a 'no' manner. "Hop on," he repeated and, again, she shook her head but also spoke.

"No, Naruto, I can walk."

"I know you can but I'd rather carry you. It's getting late and you've had a very eventful day, so I want you to rest. Now, hop on." he said.

She tried to stifle a yawn but failed miserably, so she let him give her piggyback, but before she got on, she took off her headband and dropped it near Hayate-sensei's dead body, in case they came for him.

Then she ran towards Naruto, got on his back and they jumped away.

**----- Twenty minutes later in the clearing -----**

**  
**Two figures land near Hayate's dead body. They seem shocked, but then one notices something.

Near his body is another headband. They recognize it immediately as their missing teammate's head band. They pick it up, and then take a look around the rest of the field. Demon bodies lay around. Six in total.

'_It's obvious someone else did this, as Sakura-san is too weak to do all this.'_

'_What the hell happened here? I wonder if she's still alive. Probably not, she's too weak to deal with whoever, or whatever, did this. Question is, who did this?'_

They looked at each other and nodded, silently agreeing to look for their missing teammate.

'_Poor Sakura, she's either dead, or being raped right now. Maybe she's getting tortured by an enemy, or demon. Either way, I wouldn't want to be her right now.' _Thought a certain Uchiha while doing one final search for his teammate before returning to the village.

**----- Same Time, six miles away -----**

"Ow!"

"That's what you get for dropping me, you idiot." Sakura said, smirking, to a figure on the floor with a large bump on his head.

"It was an accident! I was thinking of where to go next when you slipped off my back. It's more your fault than mine. You should have been grabbing on harder, Saku—!" Naruto's response was cut off, when an irate Sakura hit him again, sending him sprawling onto the ground again.

"I was sleeping, you dolt! I thought that's why you told me to get on!" Sakura shouted at a now very dizzy Naruto.

"Ow. Damn, Sakura, you hit hard. And here I thought _I_ was the demon." Naruto commented, laughing at the end causing Sakura to laugh along with him at the stupid situation.

Somehow, they ended up on the floor, making out until they fell asleep in each others arms, waiting to see what tomorrow would bring to them. More laughs, more punches at Naruto's head, kisses were a definite and whatever else that may come. But it didn't even matter to them, as long as they could have more moments like this one during their travels, they'll be okay.

**END...?**

Author's Note: Yeah… I don't know, it's my first fan-fic so criticize all you want or help me out. If at least ten people like it I'll keep going if not… Oh well, I tried. But I do have some ideas for more. Oh and I'm sorry Kakashi wasn't in here but I needed a replacement to be killed by the demons… Sorry. Hayate. But seeing as you died in the show and you were the first name that came to mind… so again, sorry you had to die like that.


	2. Chapter 2

AN/ Wow. I didn't think you guys would even _like_ this story. But, since I'm a man of my word, and since I got more than ten reviews, I'll keep going.

Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto because it would be too troublesome to create new episodes.

"Speech"

'_Thought'_

_'**Inner Sakura'**_

"**Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter 2: Meet Shadow

Sakura could feel the sun in her face, so she turned away from it in her sleep. A couple of minutes later she woke up, and found she was in a clearing, alone. She was worried until she remembered the previous day, and her decision to leave her village. That still didn't explain why she was alone though. She looked around for Naruto, but couldn't find him, so she called out his name.

"Naruto?"

No response.

"Naruto? Where are you?" she called out again and, again, didn't get a response.

"Come on, this isn't funny. Naruto?" After the third time she didn't get a response, she got a little teary.

_'Where is he? Did he leave me? Why would he leave me? Did he plan this from the start? Was everything he said yesterday a lie?'_ she asked herself. Just then, she heard some rustling in the bushes to her left, and a couple seconds later Naruto emerged.

As soon as Naruto saw Sakura he smiled, but when he noticed she was crying he started to worry. Before you could blink, he was kneeling in front of her, holding her as she buried her face in his chest.

"What's wrong Sakura? What happened? Why are you crying?" he asked her, but could only hear her muffled sobs. He started to think that maybe she regretted leaving her village. "Tell me what's wrong Sakura, and I'll help you. If you want to go home, just tell me and I'll take you back. Just stop crying. You know I hate it when you're like this." He said in her ear as he rubbed her back.

A little later she finally calmed down enough to speak. "W-Where were you? I w-woke up and you were gone. I th-thought maybe you left me here alone. That m-maybe everything that you said yesterday w-was a lie. That you had p-planned it from the beginning." She said, and by the end she was close to tears again.

When Naruto heard her say those things, he pulled her close and held her as tight as he could without hurting her.

"Don't ever say-no, don't ever even think that. I would never lie to you, much less leave you all alone." He whispered in her ear before pulling back and kissing her.

After the kiss Sakura felt better. He said he wouldn't leave her. Now to get back at him for making her worry.

"Where were you then, huh!" she yelled in his face.

"Oww, Sakura. Is that the thanks I get for going to get you something to eat?" he asked rubbing his ears.

"Huh?" she asked, puzzled. He just pointed to the bushes behind him where a black fox was eating a couple of fish.

"Ahh! Get away from there, Shadow!" yelled Naruto. The fox just looked up, grabbed a fish in its mouth and began to run off. "Get back here, you backstabbing, fish stealing, traitor!" he yelled as he began to chase it.

Sakura started to laugh as she watched Naruto chase the fox around. This is because no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't catch it. She calmed down enough to think.

_'Does Naruto know this fox? He called it by name so that must mean he knows it. I wonder how?'_

Just then Naruto dived at the fox, who was in front of a tree, only to hit the tree face first when it moved away at the last second. Sakura broke down in laughter. She couldn't believe it. Here was the demon who rescued her, the demon who she fell in love with after only meeting him, the demon who she left her village for, having trouble catching a fox.

_'And I thought he was supposed to be a powerful demon._' She thought as she saw him start to get up. Then the fox began to…._speak?_

"Give it up, Master Naruto." It said, chuckling. "You know you've never been able to catch me. Just give it up."

"Ha! We'll see about that. There's a first time for everything, Shadow." Yelled Naruto as he began to chase it again. "Hold still, would you, and could you stop laughing at me, Sakura! He's tricky, and it's not like you could do any better!"

She tried to calm down, only to crack up again when she saw Naruto fall in a puddle of mud when he swiped at the fox, in an attempt of grabbing it. The fox just started to laugh when Naruto began to rise and tried to clean himself.

"Dammit, Shadow. Do you have to keep making me look bad in front of Sakura." He said while he cleaned himself.

"What are you talking about, Master Naruto? I'm not making you do anything. You're making yourself look bad all on your own." it said as it calmed itself down.

"I hate you, you know that?" said Naruto, glaring.

"Come on. Is that why I'm your best friend?" it countered.

"Nuh uh. Sakura's my best friend now."

That's when Sakura remembered she question she was going to ask.

"Hey Naruto, how do you know this fox?" she asked. Then she noticed that they were arguing over something completely different from before.

"That's not true and you know it. You've never kissed a girl."

"It is true!"

"No it's not. You always say you have no time for girls."

"Naruto?"

"So, what, you're saying that Sakura's not a girl?"

"Don't drag the human into this, and don't try to change the subject either."

"I'm not changing the subject! I've kissed her already! More than once actually! Didn't you see us earlier?!"

"Naruto?"

"You shouldn't lie Master Naruto. It doesn't do you any good. I didn't see any kiss."

"I ain't lying!"

"Prove it."

"Fine! I will!"

"Naru-mff" Sakura began, but was silenced by his mouth over her's. She tried to resist him at first for ignoring her, but gave in when his arms snaked their way around her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and parted her lips, as if begging his tongue to enter.

Naruto smirked into the kiss and granted her wish. As their tongues battled for dominance, he moved one of his hands lower till he reached her ass and began to rub it while the other slipped under her shirt. His hand kept going up further until they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

"Ahem. Alright, Master Naruto. That's enough. You proved your point. No need to keep going. At least, not while I'm around, please." said the fox as they parted.

"Oh, Shadow. I forgot you were here. Sorry about that." Said Naruto, one hand behind his head as he smiled sheepishly while the other was draped over Sakura's shoulders, holding her close.

Sakura was bushing ten shades of red. Not only because of the fact that she'd been making out in front of someone, but also because they'd gone far enough that he had to break it up

_'That was intense.'_ she thought. _'My heart's still pounding in my chest.'_ She figured that since she had his attention, she should ask her question. "Hey Naruto," she paused until he faced her before continuing, "how do you know this fox? And why does it call you 'Master'?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, that's right. I never introduced you to him did I?" he asked and she shook her head. "Well, Sakura, this is Shadow. He's a fox demon, like me, and my closest friend. I met him when he was just only a few months old, in a cave, abandoned by his family, so I took him with me, and he's been with me ever since." He said stopping to let her take it in.

"About your other question though, I don't know why. I tell him he doesn't need to call me that but he says that he's in my dept for saving his life. It doesn't matter anyways. It's not like he even does what I tell him!" He finished, screaming at the other demon.

'_He's just like me then.' _Sakura thought. _'He was abandoned by those he trusted, and ended up with Naruto.' _She realized. Now she had another question. "So, then, where was he before now?" she asked.

"I told him to wait for me in a cave for a little while so I could have some alone time. Then that's when I met you. So, today, when I went to get you those fish, I also went to go get him." he said, glaring at Shadow in the end. "Though now I'm starting to think I should have left him there a little longer."

"What? I was hungry since I didn't get a chance to hunt yesterday."

"Well, why not."

"Because, you said you'd be back soon, and that we'd leave as soon as you got back."

There Sakura started to feel guilty, since it'd been her fault that Naruto had taken so long. "Yeah, sorry about that. It's my fault that he was so late." She said only to be ignored, again.

"But still Shadow, why'd you eat the fish? I told you that they were for someone else, and I asked you if you wanted some when we went to get them."

"Well I didn't hear you then."

"So! You could've got yourself some!"

"I did." Shadow said snickering. "I just conveniently found them on the floor and I thought that it'd be a waste to leave them there."

"You're an ass, you know that?"

"Well I do take after the fox demon that raised me."

"Ha! You must've been sneaking off to another fox demon cause I'm sure not like that."

"Nope. There's only one blonde fox demon around here and last time I checked, I wasn't blonde. Besides, you seem to forget that it was this same attitude that got you in trouble with the human with the huge boobs." Said shadow, a small smile on his lips.

Here, Sakura got interested. _'What woman with 'huge boobs'? Did something happen between her and Naruto?' _she thought, worried about what could've happened.

_'_**_Relax, will ya. If what Shadow said is true, then that means his first kiss was with you. That means he hasn't done anything more...intimate.'_ **Said inner Sakura. Sakura was too interested in the argument to pay attention to her.

"You wouldn't dare talk about that. Not while Sakura's here. We swore to never talk about that incident anyways." Said Naruto, looking nervous.

Oh, now Sakura was definitely interested. What could've happened that he doesn't want her to know?

"What incident?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Sometimes Shadow likes to make things up." Said Naruto waving his hands around.

"Come on. I could never make up something as hilarious as this." Shadow said trying to hold in his laughter.

"So, it's something funny?" asked Sakura, a bit relieved. "Well then. What happened?"

"You really wanna know?" asked Shadow.

"Yes." She said.

"No you don't." said Naruto.

"Yes I do." Retorted Sakura.

"No, you don't." he said, almost as an order.

"Would you just tell me what happened!" she screamed, making both fox demons cover their ears.

"O.K. I'll tell you what happened." Said Shadow.

"No you wo-"

"Naruto." Sakura interrupted him. "If you ever want another kiss or something more," she started in a slow voice, "then you'll shut up, and let him tell me what happened." She finished.

Naruto considered his options. On one hand, Sakura won't find out about what that woman did to him, but he won't get anymore kisses. On the other hand, he can get more kisses, and hopefully something more, but she'll laugh at him for what happened. Tough choice. Kisses or his pride? Kisses or his pride?

_'Fuck! What do I choose?'_ he thought as Sakura waited for his answer.

_'I can't believe he has to even think about that! Was the incident really that bad?'_ she asked herself.

_'_**_Must be if he has to think so hard about it.'_ **Said her inner self.

_'Still, I would've thought he liked me enough to be able to not even have to think about a question like that.'_ Thought Sakura, a little downcast. _'I know! I'll just have to show him what he might miss out on.' _She had a mischievous smile on her face at her idea.

Naruto was still trying to decide when he heard Sakura call him.

"Naruto." She called. "Is it really that bad that you would miss out on this?" She asked, in a seductive voice, as she slid her hands up and down her body. She would stop to cup her breasts for a couple of seconds before moving her hands again, going much lower. She slipped her thumbs under the waistband of her shorts and looked up at him to see if he made up his mind. "Well?" she asked him, inwardly smirking at the look on his face.

Naruto was completely surprised, and aroused, at what she was doing. What ever argument his pride made was completely crushed by her little act. _'Fuck my pride!'_ he thought. _'There's no way I'm gonna give that up!'_

"What are you waiting for Shadow?! Tell her about the damn incident already!" he yelled.

Sakura smiled and gave him a little peck on the lips for that._ 'Ha! I knew he'd choose me.'_ She thought happily. She then turned to listen to Shadow, but was wrapped by two arms from behind and pulled close to a hard chest. She loved how safe and loved she felt in Naruto's embrace. Then she felt his lips on her neck and she let out a small moan.

"I better get a reward for letting you know about this." He said in a husky voice after he stopped kissing her neck. He sat down on the ground, leaning on a tree and put her in between his legs with her back on his chest so she could be comfortable while listening to Shadow.

Shadow was watching them and when he noticed that they turned to him, he decided to start telling her what happened. "Well, let's see……"

**To be continued……..**

AN/ well it might not be as good as the first chapter but I still think it came out pretty well. I thought I'd wait till the next chapter to tell what happened to Naruto. Also I need you guys to tell me which of the Naruto gang to make as demons. Obviously Sasuke, Sai, and Kakashi can't be demons since I already made them human ninja's and the sanin will be human to cause I have plans for them. Just tell me which of the other ones you'd like to see as demons. Last thing. Please review


	3. Chapter 3

AN/ Alright. Looks like my story is pretty popular, huh? Never thought that would happen. And with my first ever story. That's….. Wow. So here's chapter three. I'll try and put as many funny moments in this chapter as I can. So without further ado, here's chapter three.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto……….starting to wish I did, though.

"Speech"

_'Thought'_

_'**Inner Sakura'**_

"**Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter 3: The Incident

**-------------Flashback----**

_Naruto and Shadow were walking through a small village to stock up on supplies. They had been walking in the village for around three hours and it was already night time. Naruto had a small Genjutsu to hide his ears and Shadow was disguised as a normal dog._

_They were on their way out of town, talking, Anruto ignoring the strange looks people, who thought he was crazy for talking to a dog, were sending him._

"_Hey, Master Naruto. We didn't forget anything, did we?" asked Shadow._

"_Hmm. Let's see. We got some clothes. We refilled our medical stock and hey look, I even got you a little chew toy." He said, taking out a small rubber bone and waving it in front of Shadow's face._

"_Grrr. Stop that." Growled Shadow._

"_Come on. You know you like it." Naruto said, still waving the bone in his face. Suddenly Shadow snatched the bone in his mouth and popped it. "Hey! You didn't need to pop it!" yelled Naruto._

"_Well if you'd of stopped when I told you then I wouldn't have had to." Shadow said, still mad at his idiotic master. "Why'd you buy that anyways?" he asked._

"_I don't know." Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders. "Guess it was to piss you off a bit." He smiled._

_Shadow growled and muttered something about, "Stupid blonde fox demons." As they continued to walk, they passed a small bar._

"_GET AWAY FROM ME YOU PERVERT!!" they heard coming from inside. They stopped to hold their ears when a bunch of human males came running out from the bar._

_As they were running screams of, "Crazy bitch!" and, "That's not natural!" could be heard. _

_Naruto and Shadow, being the curious fox demons they were, wanted to now what they were running from, so they headed towards the bar. Once inside they saw that everything was destroyed, and there was sake everywhere. In the middle of the bar, there were five guys surrounding two women. Now, since Naruto was taught to protect women, he immediately called out to them. _

"_Hey. What's going on here?" he asked._

_The five guys turned to look at him. They all looked like they were just normal thugs. He sighed inwardly. _'Damn. I hope I don't have to kill them. I hate killing simple humans.'_ He thought._

_The five thugs looked at Naruto, and seemed to be studying him. From their prospective he looked like a normal sixteen year old. There wasn't anything about his appearance that looked dangerous so they didn't consider him a threat._

"_Nothing kid. Just run along and leave us to our business." Said one of the men._

"_And what business would that be? Attacking innocent women?" asked Naruto. "People like you make me sick." He said. _

_Just then, one of the thugs ran at him with his fist pulled back. Before he reached him, Naruto disappeared and reappeared behind him and struck him behind the head, successfully knocking him out. The other thugs were surprised at this. _

_"Now, care to tell me what you're doing." He asked again._

"_U-Um, it's not o-our fault. This woman came in a-and started to cause trouble." Said another one of the thugs._

"_Hmm. Is that so? Then why do I get the feeling that you're lying to me?" asked Naruto. He could tell it was a lie two ways. One, he heard the woman yell at the men and, two, he could hear the man's heart beat increase._

_The man started to sweat a little. _'This kid seems strong. I better try and convince him to side with us.'_ He thought. "I'm not lying. We were just passing by when this drunken bitch star-unh." He couldn't finish seeing as Naruto had punched him in the stomach and knocked him out. _

"_That's for what you called that woman. There's no exception for disrespecting a woman." Naruto spoke in an angry voice. Then he turned to the other guys and glared. "I'll give you three a chance to leave. Take your friends and leave before I change my mind." He said, and they grabbed their friends and left running. After they were gone, Naruto turned to the women to see if they were O.K._

_As soon as he turned he heard a gasp, and one of the women speak. "A-Arashi?" said the woman on the right. She was wearing a grey shirt with dark blue pants. She had yellow hair, light brown eyes and had a diamond mark on her forehead. The thing that got their attention the most was the size of her rack. It was bigger than Naruto's head._

_Shadow looked—_

* * *

**-----------Flashback interrupted----**

Sakura had been listening to Shadow tell her what happened when he said that one of the women had boobs that were bigger than Naruto's head. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. That has to be exaggerated. I don't think her boobs were really _that_ big." She said, sitting up.

"Yes they were. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to continue. Unless you don't want to hear the rest." Spoke Shadow, slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

Sakura just smiled sheepishly and leaned back onto Naruto's chest. "Sorry. Please continue." She said.

"Alright, where was I? Oh, yeah." Said Shadow.

* * *

**-----------Flashback continued----**

_Shadow looked at her, eyes wide and mouth open while Naruto was looking around the bar to see who she was talking to. When he found no one else there he looked back at the woman and found she was crying and looking at him funny._

"_Arashi. W-What are you d-doing here? I th-thought you were dead." She said as she ran towards Naruto and hugged him, crying on his shoulder._

* * *

**----------Flashback paused----**

Shadow stopped since he broke down laughing. Sakura was confused. Wasn't he saying a woman was crying? She turned to look at Naruto and found him snickering._ 'What's going on?' _she asked herself.

_'**Stupid. Didn't you hear that some hussy was hugging our Naruto?'**_ asked her inner self.

Sakura got a little mad at that, but calmed herself down a bit when she remembered that she was his first kiss. When she looked at Shadow again, he was rolling around on the ground, laughing.

"Alright. What's so funny about some woman crying and holding my Naruto?" she asked, a little annoyed.

"N-Nothing. Unless y-you saw the l-look on Master's f-face when s-she hugged him." Said Shadow through his laughter. Then Sakura heard Naruto start laughing behind her. "W-W-When she hugged h-him, Master had a-a very confused l-look on his face. Ha ha ha. His f-face looked like it s-said 'who-the-fuck-is-this-person-and-why's-she-hugging-me?' Ha ha ha. O-Oh, my r-ribs. Haha. O-Ouch."

"Well," said Sakura, laughing a bit after picturing Naruto in that kind of situation. "Could you please continue?" she asked.

"Y-Yeah. Just g-give me a m-minute." Replied Shadow, trying to calm down. "Alright, let's continue."

* * *

--------**Flashback resumed----**

_Naruto was standing there, with an extremely confused look on his face, while the strange woman cried on his chest. He looked over at Shadow as if asking for help, but Shadow was too busy snickering to notice. _

'Damn you Shadow. Whenever I need your help, your useless.' _He thought. Then he looked over at the other woman to see if she could help, only to see the same look on her face that the other woman had. This woman wore a dark blue kimono. She had short black hair and black eyes. Naruto noticed that there seemed to be a pig wearing a red jacket at the woman's heels._

_He sighed. _'She's not gonna be any help either... and I doubt the pig will help much...'_ He thought. When five minutes passed, and she was still crying on his chest, he decided to speak. "What's wrong?" he asked._

_She seemed to stop crying and looked up at him, and that's when he noticed she was drunk. "What do you mean, 'what's wrong'? You're supposed to be dead." She said._

_He decided to play along since she was drunk. "I am?" he asked._

_The woman just nodded and hugged him tighter. "But I'm glad you're not." she said. _

_Now, Naruto was in a bind. She was hugging him so tight, he couldn't breathe. "H-Hey… let go…can't…… breathe… too… tight." He gasped out. She let him go and he dropped to the floor gasping for air_. 'Damn!'_ he thought _'If she hadn't let go, I think I might've been in trouble.'

"_Are you O.K.?" asked the woman in front of him. When he nodded she immediately hit him over the head. "Idiot! That's for making me think you were dead for all these years!" she yelled at him._

"_Uhh." Naruto groaned. _'What the hell is this woman talking about?' _he thought. He got up shakily and looked at Shadow again for help, and again, Shadow was laughing. He sighed before looking at the blond woman in front of him. "What are you talking about?" he asked, slowly._

_She seemed to get even madder. "'What am I talking about'!? The fact that you're supposed to have died after protecting the village from the Kyuubi!" she yelled. _

_His face instantly hardened. The mention of the Kyuubi brought back bad memories. Memories of his mother, of his childhood, of his cold brothe--. He shook his head slightly to rid himself of them. _

'No use thinking about them now.'_ He thought. Then he looked at the woman again. "Umm… I don't know how to tell you this, but…I have no idea what you've been talking about for the last hour or so." He said. "Heck, I don't even know who you, or this Arahi guy, are. So if you don't mind I'll be going now." _

_She grabbed his shoulders and looked at him, sadness in her eyes. "Oh, come on. You have to remember me. I'm your mother." She said._

"_I'm sorry but you're not my mother." He told her coldly. He'll treat women with respect but if anyone mocks his mother he'll turn cold. "Now let go."_

"_Arashi… what happened to you?" asked the blonde human, tears in her eyes. "Why are you being so cold to me? Did I do something wrong? Please tell me Arashi." _

"_That's another thing. Stop calling me Arashi. That's not my name. My name is Naruto. Na-ru-to." He said, already getting annoyed with this woman while Shadow watched, clearly amused. "Now, please, let go."_

"_No, please don't tell me you have amnesia." She asked and Naruto sighed. "Y-Your name is Arashi. Arashi Kazama. And I'm your moth--"_

"_Enough!" yelled Naruto. "My name is not Arashi Kazama! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! You're not my mother! You could never be my mother since you're a human and I'm a demon!" he said and took of the Genjutsu to show her his ears. _

_Her face fell and Naruto thought she was crying. He felt bad he made her cry but she wasn't listening. That, and her being drunk didn't help. He was about to apologize when he felt a huge amount of killer intent. _

"_You mean you're not Arashi?" She asked, calmly. When he nodded it was like a bomb went off. "YOU MEAN YOU'VE BEEN IMPERSENATING MY DEAD SON!?!? I'M GONNA BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!!" she yelled as she pulled her fist back._

_Naruto was holding his ears when he opened his eyes and saw her pull her fist back. _'Oh, shit,'_ was the last thing he thought before it hit._

_BAM!!_

_Naruto was sent back, and through the wall of the bar. Shadow's eyes widened from the amount of strength this human seemed to posses. He seemed worried for his master until he saw him get up. Then he burst out laughing._

_Naruto was getting up when he heard Shadow start laughing. _'Bastard.' _He thought. Then he felt pain on the side of his face. _

_BAM!!_

_That was the sound of another hit. This one sent Naruto down the small dirt path outside the bar. Naruto lay there on the ground, not moving. _'Holy shit!'_ he yelled in his mind. _'What's with that human woman? She hits harder than anyone else I've ever met in my life!' _He opened his eyes and began to get up. Then he noticed the strange woman was closing in on him. He quickly jumped away from her, avoiding another punch in the process, and called out to Shadow. "Shadow! We're out of here! Let's go!" he yelled._

_Suddenly Shadow appeared next to Naruto, Genjutsu deactivated. "Alright. I was getting tired of watching you make an idiot of yourself anyways." He said with a grin on his face._

_Just then, the ground beneath them started to crack open. They jumped away only for Naruto to get hit from behind and hit the ground, face down, close to unconsciousness. "OH, NO, YOU DON'T!!" yelled the woman, pulling her fist back for another hit. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID!"_

_Her fist was about to connect with the back of his head when he disappeared. She looked around for him when she heard someone's voice form atop a nearby building. _

_"Sorry for ruining your fun, but I can't let you kill my Master." Spoke Shadow. "Well, I could, but then what kind of friend would I be?"_

_With that shadow disappeared with a half conscience Naruto on his back. "COME BACK HERE YOU DEMON!" she yelled. "COME BACK SO I CAN KILL YOU FOR TAKING MY SON'S FACE!" she yelled again before falling to the ground, crying over her dead son and the fact that there's someone walking around with his face._

* * *

-----------**Two Miles Away From the Village**----

_Shadow had been running when he heard the woman's scream_. 'Damn, even from this far away I can hear her.' _He thought. Then he felt movement on his back, so he stopped to check on his master. He put him down near a tree and looked him over. "You O.K.?" asked Shadow._

"_Ugh. Do I look O.K. to you?" Naruto asked back. _

"_No. You look like shit." Responded Shadow, half snickering._

"_Then why'd you ask if I was O.K.?" _

"_To annoy you." Shadow said, smiling._

"_Grr. Asshole. Ow." Naruto winced as he felt pain all over his upper body. _

"_Easy, Master Naruto. You took quite a beating back there." Said Shadow with a small amount of concern in his voice, but also with humor in it._

"_Shut up. Ow."_

"_Can't believe you were beat up by a human. And a human female no less." Said Shadow, amusement still in his voice._

"_Ugh. Shut up."_

"_Guess we know why your mother told you to 'respect women', huh?"_

"_Maybe. Ow."_

"_She really did a number on you, huh?" _

"_Yeah. Now, do me a favor."_

"_What?" _

"_Never mention this again."_

"_Yeah, sure, whatever. Wouldn't want people thinking I have a weak Master anyways." Said Shadow. "I mean, damn, getting beat up by a woman."_

"_I thought I told you not to talk about it anymore!"_

"_Fine. So where to now?" asked Shadow._

"_Tomorrow we start heading towards Fire country." Responded Naruto._

"_Why tomorrow?"_

"_Cause, I'm about to pass out." Said Naruto and sure enough, a couple seconds later he fainted. _

"_Hmm. I guess I should get some rest too." Said Shadow as he curled him self up near Naruto and fell asleep._

* * *

**------------ Flashback end----**

Sakura turned towards Naruto and cupped his face. "I can't believe some strange woman hurt you so much." She said.

Naruto thought she was gonna laugh at laugh at him so he was a little surprised when she gave him a kiss. He didn't try to stop her though. He actually deepened the kiss. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and began to massage hers. He loved how she tasted of strawberries. He felt her turn her body around completely so she was straddling his lap, before wrapping her arms around his neck.

Sakura moaned when his hands grasped her ass. Then she felt something. It seemed he liked their position as she could feel him getting hard. She decided to try something.

Naruto was trying to control himself, or rather his 'little friend' since Sakura was on top him. So he was more than a little surprised when she bucked her hips into his. He let out a groan and pushed his hips upward into her, making her moan into the kiss.

This continued for a while, until Sakura remembered that shadow was there. With one last push they separated for air. She was amazed at how long they'd been kissing without taking a break for air. As she rested her head on Naruto's shoulder, she felt his lips attack her neck. She moaned when he reached her collar bone and began to suck gently on it. She remembered why she broke the kiss and pushed him against the tree he was leaning on.

"Naruto, later." She said. "Shadow's here now."

Naruto was confused until he looked over and saw that Shadow _was_ there. He seemed to have turned around to give them a little privacy. He looked at Sakura and gave her a peck on the lips. "Alright but you said it yourself. Later." He whispered and smirked when a small blush appeared on her face at the realization of her words. "Hey, Shadow. You can look now." He said after she got off his lap and sat next to him.

"Thank god." He sighed and turned around. "So I guess I'm gonna have to get used to this now that you have a mate, huh?" he asked.

Both Naruto and Sakura blushed a bit at that. They looked at each other and Sakura sent him a confused look. "Mate?" she asked.

Naruto laughed nervously then looked at Shadow. "Hold on, Shadow. I haven't even marked her yet." He said and noticed Sakura get even more confused.

"Yet? What do you mean yet?" she asked.

"He looked at her and smiled sheepishly. "Well… that is, if you want." He said rubbing the back of his head.

"What will it mean if you mark me?"

He looked thought full for a moment then he looked at her again. "Well it would basically be like what you humans call marriage. You'd be my mate and it would mean other males won't approach you. It's actually pretty good for sending away demons who would want to rape you." He explained.

"What else does it do? And would it hurt?" she asked, fear in her voice.

"No, it won't hurt at all…I think." He said and she glanced at him confused again. "Well how should I know? I've never had a mate before. And another thing I know it does, is warn me when someone with more than friendly feelings touches you if I'm not with you. But that's all I know it does. It could do other things or that could be it." He said, shrugging his shoulders at the end.

Sakura thought about what he said. If she were to get this mark then it would be like getting married. She could also stop worrying about getting raped by demons. All it would cost is a bit of pain when she gets it.

_'_**_It sounds like a pretty good deal to me.'_ **Said inner Sakura. _'_**_We wouldn't have to worry about someone taking our Naruto or about being raped. I say we get the mark._ **

'_Yeah. I guess your right. I mean what would be the point of leaving the village with him if I didn't want this?' _she thought.

_'_**_I don't know. But it would also be like we were married.'_ **Inner Sakura responded, happily.

'_Yeah and that's great. But I think I'm gonna make him sweat a little._' She thought. She looked at him and smiled. "Well, it sounds good, but I'll have to think about it for a while. I mean marriage is a big step and I don't know if I'm ready." She said, feigning worry.

"But it's not marriage. It's marking. It would mean that I would protect you with my life, and make sure that your always happy." Said Naruto, getting up.

"That may be true but--"

"It is true." He said softly kneeling down in front of her. "Please. I love you and I don't think I could live without you."

She smiled and cupped his face before kissing him. "That's all I wanted to hear." She said after the kiss and hugged him. She saw he was confused so she decided to explain. "I have no problem being your mate, but I just wanted to hear you say that you _want_ me to be your mate. I wanted to see if you loved me like I do, you."

Naruto smiled and gave her a kiss. "So… I take it you love me too?" he asked and she nodded. "Well then I'll give you the mark tonight then, so if it hurts, you can go to sleep afterwards. Alright?" he asked and she nodded again. "Great now that that's settle let's get something to eat. I haven't eaten since yesterday so I'm staving. What about you Sakura?"

"Yeah, I'm a little hungry myself. What are we going to eat?"

"I don't know. I was thinking we could go to this village nearby for lunch and get you some more clothes while we're there. What do you think?" he asked.

"That sounds great but do you think you have enough money?" she asked him. She didn't want him to waste all his money on her.

"Enough money? Of course. Me and Shadow sometimes impersonate ninja and do missions. Since we hardly buy things we have a lot of money. So don't worry about it." He reassured her.

"Well if your sure." she said and he nodded, smiling. "Alright. Let's go then."

Naruto smiled and began to gather his things. "Shadow, come on. We're going to the village over the river." Naruto said and Shadow nodded. He turned to Sakura. "You ready?" he asked her and she nodded. "Alright then. Let's go." And with that they left the clearing and headed towards the village across the river.

**To Be Continued…….**

AN/ O.K. I hope you guys liked it. This is starting to be fun. The writing stories. I think I might make more but for now I'll focus on this one and "Just Following Orders". I have big things for that story. I know that maybe the incedent isn't as funny as 'Shadow' made it out to be but it served its purpose. Anyways I'd like to know if you guys and girls think I should put lemons in these stories. One more thing. Please leave a review. Thank you.


	4. Chapter 4

AN/ Hey you guys and girls, I'm back and I finally finished chapter 4 of this fic. Okay, first I just wanna say sorry for the wait but I got stuck for a while and then when I moved, I forgot to save what I had on a disc so I had to start over again. Also- ah the heck with it. Let's just go to the story.

Disclaimer: This is getting old… I don't own Naruto.

"Speech"

'_Thought'_

'_**Inner Sakura'**_

"**Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter 4: An Unwanted Reunion

Naruto, Sakura, and Shadow were walking through the forest searching for the river. How Naruto and Shadow forgot where the river was is beyond Sakura.

"I think it was this way…"

"No you dumb ass, it's this way."

"I'm telling you, it's this way!"

"Yeah, and you also tell me that if I let seeds fall into my fur, and let them stay there, a plant will grow, so shut up."

"Hey, I thought I was your master. So if I say something's one way, it's that way!"

"You also thought you could beat the Nibi but you were _way_ off."

"That's not fair, she cheated! She got in a low blow."

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that you are always wrong."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Name one other time when I was wrong!"

"When you thought that if you were close to beating the Nibi, which you weren't, you should be able to beat Shukaku."

"And I was wrong, how?"

"You couldn't even beat his son."

"I let Gaara win, okay!?"

"Please, he had you running around the field for a half hour before he got bored and finished it."

"Exactly! I never tried to hit him! I was saving my energy for his dad!"

"A lot of good that did you. He crushed you too."

"I was too tired from fighting Gaara to-,"

"Oh my god, would you two shut up!" yelled Sakura, interrupting Naruto, and making them both cover their ears. When they let go of their ears, she spoke again. "If you two idiots argue again, I'm going to castrate you."

Naruto, who had heard Shadow whimper, looked at her confused. "Castrate? The hell does that mean?" he asked.

Sakura stared at him for a while before looking over at Shadow. "What's wrong with him?"

"I ask myself that question, everyday." Was his response.

She laughed a little and looked back at Naruto. "I'll leave that for you to figure out in the future. Now let's just hurry up and find the river." She said, and motioned for him to go.

After another ten minutes of searching, she decided to ask a question that had been bugging her since she met Shadow. "Hey guys?" she said to get their attention. Once she had it she continued, "I've been wondering, which one of you is stronger?" she asked.

"Me!" came the yells from both fox demons before they looked at each other and glared.

"What do you mean, you? I'm stronger!" yelled Naruto.

"Ha! You, stronger than me? That'll be the day!" yelled Shadow.

"You know I'm stro-," Naruto started before he was cut off by Sakura.

"Guys." she said through clenched teeth. "What did I say?" she asked and Shadow put his head down. Naruto though, still didn't know what she meant,.. so he was about to continue to argue until Shadow jumped on him, making him fall back.

"If you ever want to mate, with your mate, you will, shut. The. Fuck. Up. I don't care if you don't plan on mating, I do." He whispered to Naruto before got off.

Sakura looked on as Shadow tackled Naruto, whispered something, got off and Naruto sat up. She glared at Naruto as he stared at her, innocence on his face making her drop her glare while mumbling something about, "Dumb fox demons."

Naruto got up and started to walk in the same direction as before, Shadow close behind. After a couple seconds Sakura noticed they were moving and went after them. "Hey! You guys never answered my question!" she yelled as she caught up with them.

"And how are we gonna answer it if we don't know who's stronger ourselves?" said Naruto and Shadow snickered. He looked down at him. "What?"

"I'm stronger than you, dumb ass." He said with a smirk.

"You are not." said Naruto, coming to a halt. "How could you be stronger than me when you're, like, half my age?" He questioned. "…How old are you Shadow?"

"I don't know," Shadow shrugged, "but it doesn't matter if I'm younger, I'm still stronger than you." He said.

"No you're not!" yelled Naruto, not noticing Sakura's eye brow twitching.

"Yes I am, just admit it!"

"I'll 'admit it' when you show me proof that you're stronger than me!"

"Fine!" shouted Shadow before turning towards Sakura. "You, keep track of my points, and Master Naruto's points." He ordered.

"What?" she asked. "What points?"

Shadow looked at her again. "We're going to list off our strengths and weaknesses and you keep score. Whoever has more points to them, wins." He explained. "Got it?"

"Yeah but why do_ I_ have to keep score?" she asked.

"Because, if I do it, he'll think I'm cheating and giving myself more points for no reason. And he can't do it because it'll take all his brain power just to remember all the things he can do."

"Hey!"

"Shut up, you know it's true."

"Is not!"

"Keep telling yourself that." said Shadow. "Now Sakura, please keep score for us."

"Alright, just tell me the 'skills' you two have and we'll see who's better." Said Sakura. "Which one is stronger, physically?" she asked and Naruto turned and started walking backwards.

"That's me. I can probably break a boulder with, like, two punches. Shadow though… well, he can tackle a rock all he wants, but he won't be able to break it." He said with a smile.

"..." shadow was silent, glaring at Naruto.

"Alright, that's one for Naruto. Now, who's faster?"

Naruto's smile fell and he sighed. "Shadow's faster than me. Way faster." He said.

"Mentally and physically." Said Shadow, smirking.

Naruto turned his head towards Shadow and narrowed his eyes. "Shut the fuck up, Shadow."

"See? He didn't deny it." Shadow said to Sakura.

Sakura just rolled her eyes. "Whatever lets hurry this-," she and Shadow stopped but Naruto keep going, backwards.

"What happened guys? Why'd you sto- ahh!" Naruto was cut off when he slipped and fell into the river. He came up a little while later, gasping for air. "Hey! Why didn't you guys tell me to stop!?" he asked as he got back on land.

"Not our fault you weren't paying attention, moron." said Shadow. "Also, shouldn't you have swum that way? Why'd you come back this way?" he asked.

"Um… crap, you're right. Should've gone that way… damn." Said Naruto, hitting his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Ah well," he looked up with a somewhat red forehead, "let's just go now."

Shadow backed up a little before running and jumping across the river. Naruto was about to do the same until he saw that Sakura was walking over the water. He stopped and stared at her. _'How the hell…?'_ he thought.

He tried to see if his foot would stay on top the water, but it kept sinking. Then he had and idea. He backed up like Shadow and ran towards the river. He used his speed and made it ten steps over the water before he sank like a rock.

When he came back up, Sakura was already almost to the other side. "Hey, Sakura! How are you doing that?" he asked.

Sakura turned her head to look back at him. "Doing what?" she asked.

"You know, that." He said, pointing at her feet.

She looked down and wondered if he meant water walking. "You mean, how am I walking on water?" she saw him nod his head. "I'm using chakra. I don't think demons can do this. You guys don't usually have much chakra, right?"

"Yea we do. We have a lot of chakra. Most demons just don't use it against humans cause they think humans aren't _worthy_ of their full power. And that's how most demons die." He finished with a smile. "But anyways, I should be able to walk on water too!" he yelled and swam back to the opposite shore.

What he hadn't noticed was that a bunch of fish demon were making their way through the river. When Naruto tried to run over the river, and fell into it again, the fish demon thought he was attacking them.

Naruto opened his eyes after sinking again and his eyes widened. All around him, fish demon were looking at him with anger on their faces.

"**You dare attack us!?" **yelled one of the demons closest to Naruto.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but the only thing that came out was bubbles. He clamped his hands over his mouth to prevent any more air from escaping his lings. _'Shit.'_ He thought. _'How the hell am I gonna get outta this?'_ he asked himself mentally as the fish demon started getting closer.

**-------------Back with Shadow and Sakura-----**

Sakura was looking at the spot where Naruto had fallen in and started to get nervous when she saw bubbles come up. "Shadow… shouldn't we check if he's alright? I mean, he's taking a long time…."

"Nah, the idiot's probably trying to mess with us." Replied Shadow.

"Are you sure?" asked Sakura, still looking at where Naruto had fallen.

"Trust me, he's jus-" he was interrupted when Naruto jumped out of the water with a couple fish demons biting his arms, legs and one had even sunken it's teeth into his ass.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" he yelled in pain before he fell back into the river. He reemerged a few seconds later, trying desperately to swim away from the fish demon. Unfortunately for Naruto, they were faster than he was in water.

Sakura stood there; eyes wide, watching Naruto try to get away from the little demons while Shadow was rolling around on the ground, laughing. Sakura turned her attention from Naruto and glared at Shadow. "Why aren't you trying to help him?" she asked.

"Oh right," he said, trying to calm down, "You wa-want me to go-go in there and get atta-attacked too?" he asked. Then he got an idea. "Hey, Master Naruto! Why don't you just use a lightning attack!?" he yelled.

Naruto, who had recently managed to get out of the water and onto a rock in the middle of the river, looked towards him. "Good idea!" he yelled and started doing hand signs. Hand signs that Sakura didn't recognize. After the tenth one, his hand started to glow red, and it looked and sounded like electricity.

He brought his hand up above his head, getting ready to bring it down. But, as always, luck was not on Naruto's side, as when he brought his hand down, he slipped on the rock and fell into the water.

The last thing that everyone thought was, _'Oh shit.'_

Naruto hit the water with a 'splash', and a second later; a part of the river glowed red. A few more seconds later, Naruto floated to the top of the water and started floating towards Shadow and Sakura. When he was close enough, they heard him say, "I hate you Shadow… you knew that would happen, didn't you?"

Shadow had to suppress his laughter. "Well… maybe I thought there was a chance it would happen…" he said, and got a hit to the top of the head, courtesy of Sakura.

"Idiot." She mumbled under her breath but it was heard by both of them. She looked over at Naruto and saw him wash up on the wet soil. She went and kneeled next to him. "You alright?" she asked.

Naruto sat up. "Yea, it wasn't that strong, the attack. Hardly fifteen percent of what it can do, so I'm okay." He said as he got up. He looked at her. "Uh… let's keep going. I think the village is that way…" he pointed in the direction that a path could be seen.

"No shit Sherlock." Said Shadow. "Lets just hurry, I bet your mate is starving, and wants to get some clean clothes."

"Yea, well she wouldn't be starving if you hadn't eaten the fish." Responded Naruto, slightly annoyed at Shadow. He was about to say more when Sakura, who didn't want to hear another pointless argument, grabbed his hand and pulled him with her towards the path.

"Shadow has a point. I'm kind of hungry, and I do want to get some clean clothes." She said. She saw him nod and they continued on the path. A few minutes later they arrived at a small village.

"Ah, shit." Sakura cursed when she saw the sign near the entrance of the village.

"What?" asked Naruto, wondering why she had cursed. "Is something wrong?"

"Kind of…" she responded, confusing Naruto even more.

"What do you mean, 'kind of'?" he asked.

"This village, Tanzaku… I know it… my parents and I used to come here every once in a while to spend time with each other…" she explained, looking a little nervous. "There's a chance someone might tell someone from Konoha that they saw me here."

"I get what you're saying but," Naruto grinned, "we're just gonna go in and get some things real quick, and get out, aren't we? I mean, it's not like we're gonna stay here for days, so don't worry about it." He finished putting his arm around her shoulders, a smile on his face.

"Let's hurry up, if you really don't want to stay here for too long, Sakura, we need to go in and get out quick." Said Shadow. Naruto and Sakura looked over at him and saw he had done a small Henge to make himself look like an average dog.

"Oh, yea, that reminds me." Naruto put his hands together, in another hand sign Sakura didn't recognize, and a second later he was surrounded by smoke. When it cleared, Sakura saw he had changed his appearance a little. His normal ears were gone and human ones were at the side of his head. His fangs and claws had also disappeared. He looked like a normal human.

"Did I do it right?" He asked and got a small nod from shadow. "Good, let's go." He motioned for Sakura to start going and when she didn't, he started pushing her along. "Come on, go, Sakura." He said as he pushed her.

"Hey!" she yelled. "I can move on my own!"

"So why aren't you?" Asked Naruto.

"Just stop pushing me and I will!" she yelled, trying to make him stop pushing her by digging her heels into the ground. When he stopped, she fell backwards and he moved out of the way, making her fall flat on her ass. "Ow, I'm going to get you for that, you big jackass." She said as she got up, rubbing her sore behind.

Naruto was about to say something when Shadow spoke up. "Come on you two, let's hurry up already and get what we need." He chose his words carefully, for fear of getting hit by Sakura again. _'That mate of his hits _hard_. I wonder how long Master is going to survive with her around…'_ he thought as they walked through the village.

Not five minutes passed by when Sakura stopped. "Oh, guys! Let me go in here!" she yelled even though they were right next to her. "I love this place; it's where I bought some of my clothes before." She didn't even wait for a response before she ran inside the store.

Naruto and Shadow looked at each other, Naruto with an amused smile and Shadow sighed. "This should take a while, if what we've heard about girls is correct." Said Shadow. "We should give her a small amount and go get some food while she's shopping."

Naruto nodded. "Yea, I guess we should. Wait here Shadow." He said before he went inside to look for Sakura. When he got inside, he was a little surprised. There were clothes everywhere. He looked around and his eyes started to hurt from all the colors. He shook his head and saw Sakura to the far right side of the store, looking at a pair of white pants.

Sakura held a pair of pants that had a cherry blossom design along the side and was wondering if she should buy them. She looked at the price and saw it was a fairly reasonable amount.

'_Hm… should I ask Naruto to get me these...? They don't cost that much, but will I ever get a chance to wear them…?'_ she asked herself mentally. She was surprised when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist.

"Those would look great on you." Said Naruto from behind her. He felt her relax after he spoke and he let her go. "Sakura, me and Shadow are gonna go and buy some suplies, so I came in here to give you some money for if you finish before us," He reached into a pouch that was on his hip and pulled out some money.

Sakura's jaw dropped. _'Th-that's _a lot_ of money. How did Naruto get that much money?' _she asked herself as she watched Naruto take about two fifths of the money and hold it out for her. She looked at it and even though it wasn't all the money, it was still a lot.

"Here, that should be enough, and if it isn't, just ask for more." He smiled and patted the pouch with his right hand. "This bag is still really full." He said and Sakura's eye brows rose in shock.

"You have _more_ money?" she asked and he nodded.

"I told you, me and Shadow make money and hardly ever spend it. Anyway, here, take it." He put the money in her hand and gave her a peck on the lips. "I'm gonna go with Shadow to get some supplies for when we leave, and then we'll come get you so we can go eat somewhere." He said as he walked out of the store, leaving Sakura alone with a huge wad of cash.

Sakura looked down at the money in her hand, and inner Sakura reared her head again. _**'Wow! Would you look at all that money! It's enough to buy at least two of everything in here!' **_she yelled in Sakura's mind and Sakura nodded dumbly.

She snapped out of her little 'damn-that's-a-lot' state when a sales woman came up and asked if she needed help. "No, no, that's alright." She told the woman and went back to looking for what to buy.

* * *

**-----------Outside with Naruto and Shadow-------**

Naruto came out and saw Shadow sitting near a tree, waiting for him. "What do we get first?" he asked, getting up.

"Uh… I dunno, food?" Naruto suggested, shrugging and Shadow sighed.

"Whatever." Said Shadow as they started walking off down the street.

* * *

--------Around Three Hours Later--------

"Ahh! Isn't your mate done yet!?" yelled Shadow. He and Naruto had finished getting all the things they'd need for a while a half hour ago, and had come back to wait for Sakura outside of the store.

"I dunno," Naruto shrugged, "we really haven't told her we're back. She might be waiting for us or she might've gone to look for us already."

"Then go in and look for her."

"Why don't you go?"

"Well, for one thing, she's your mate so you should be the one to look after her," started Shadow, "and two, look there." He motioned to the front of a store.

Naruto looked over at the store and read a sign aloud. "No pets allowed." He looked at Shadow. "So? You aren't my pet." He said, smirking.

"Just go, you idiot." Said Shadow, more than a little annoyed.

Naruto smiled. "Yea, yea, alright." He said before walking into the store. Again all the colors made him feel dizzy and it took him a couple seconds to get them refocused. "Too many damn colors…" he said to no one in particular before heading over to one of the sales women. "Hey have you seen a girl with pink hair, green eyes, about this tall," he put his hand to around his mouth, "and beauty beyond compare?" Naruto asked.

"Uh… I think so…" said the confused woman. "I think she's in the changing rooms." She pointed to the back where a rectangular room with a couple of doors could be seen.

"Alright, thanks." Naruto started heading in the direction of the rooms, much to the confusion of the woman. "Don't worry, she's my girlfriend." Naruto told the woman, who still looked like she didn't approve of him going back there. "I'm just gonna tell her something real quick, I'm not some perv, jeez."

He reached the doors and sniffed for a while, searching for her scent. _'There.'_ he thought, looking at one if the doors on the wall to the left. He went to it and sniffed again, just to make sure and sure enough, it was her scent. He moved his hand to the knob.

Sakura was a happy girl at the moment. She had enough money to buy anything she wanted from the clothing store. She had just taken off a red shirt with a white fox in the back and was going to try on another bra. She pulled off her bra and just when she did, the door opened. The bad thing, she was facing the door.

Naruto opened the door and his eyes widened. There stood Sakura, without a shirt or bra, facing him. He stared at her half naked form with his mouth wide open, and thought, _'Whoa.'_ Next thing he knew, he was flying through the air and hit the wall behind him.

"Naruto, you idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing!?" yelled Sakura from behind the door of her changing room. She didn't wait for a response before she closed the door, leaving a half conscious Naruto at the base of the wall.

"Ugh…" Naruto groaned as he tried to get up from the floor. "Ow…. That hurt like hell!" he yelled, rubbing his nose, which had some blood coming out of it. Whether it was from seeing Sakura topless, being punched by her, or both, he didn't know. All he knew was that Sakura had a _really_ nice body.

He got up and headed towards her door, ignoring the yells of the sales woman from earlier. "Sakura, are you almost done!?" he yelled. He heard some shuffling and the door opened to reveal a fully clothed Sakura.

"What the hell, Naruto!? Didn't anyone ever tell you to knock first!?" she yelled at him.

"Well, yea but-"

"But what!?"

"Well… I didn't know you'd be… you know, topless." He said, letting the last part come out just above a whisper. "'sides, what's the big deal? We're gonna be mates, so I'm gonna see that stuff eventually, aren't I?" he asked with a smirk.

Sakura blushed a little. "Well… not if you act like an idiot all the time. And I care because this is a _store_, Naruto. What if someone had seen me?" she asked, hands at her hips and a glare on her face.

"Sakura, it's a _female_ _clothing_ store. I don't think any guy would see you in here besides me. Even the workers are all women." He said, smiling. "Now, are you almost done? I thought you were hungry and wanted to leave quickly."

Sakura's stomach growled when he reminded her of food and she laughed nervously. "Oh yea, well… I can't decide what to take. I mean, we I know I can't buy everything so I've been trying to decide what to take." She moved to let Naruto see the clothes she had in the room and then she saw him smile a bit.

"Ah, Sakura, that's not that much. 'sides, I know a way we can take 'em all." He grinned and Sakura looked at him confused. "You see, a while back, before the incident, I met this old pervert with white hair. We talked and he said he'd teach me some things cause I looked like someone he knew, or something. Anyways, the only thing he really taught me about was seals before he disappeared." He explained. "We can just seal your clothes in a scroll, like my stuff."

"Wait, so why do you carry a pack around?" she asked. _'If he can seal things, what's the point of a pack full of stuff?' _she thought.

"The pack is for things like medicine and where I keep the sealing scrolls. I mean, I can't just keep the scrolls in my pockets. What if I get injured and blood spills onto them?" he asked. "They'll all activate and that would be a very odd situation. My pants would, like, blow up or something and it would be very awkward to fight pant less." He laughed at the thought and so did Sakura.

"Okay, I see your point but just so we're sure," she looked him in the eye, "you're sure I can take all of these?" she pointed at the room behind her with her thumb.

Naruto walked into the room and rummaged through what she had. "Hmm… let's see, you got twelve shirts, nine pairs of pants, three sweaters, a hat with a white circle on the top..." he paused and looked at her. "Yea, what the hell's with the circle? I mean I see it on your clothes and keep wondering what it is." He said, not noticing his other hand had picked up one of the panties that were there.

"That," she moved closer and took the hat from him, "is my clan symbol. I'm still a Haruno and I still belong to the clan. This store makes the Haruno's clothing and I like my symbol so I decided to buy some while I can." She said, and that was when she noticed his left hand held one of the panties she was going to buy. "What are you doing?" she asked him.

"Uh… why?"

"Why are you holding those?" she pointed to his left hand and when he looked, he dropped the piece of clothing.

"Oh, crap, I didn't know I was holding it, I swear." He exclaimed, backing away from the pile of clothes. "Anyway, if you wanna buy 'em, buy 'em. I'm telling you we have a way to carry it all, so all you need to do is pay." He looked at her. "You want me to stay here with you, or can I go outside and count on you coming out in under half an hour?" he joked.

"Yeah, okay, just get out you idiot." She said, smiling as pushed him out of the room and returned inside to get her clothes.

Naruto walked back outside and saw Shadow lying on his back with his tongue sticking put a little. "What are you doing Shadow?" he asked and got no response. "Uh… Shadow?" he asked again.

"Shut up, can't you see I'm dead?" whispered Shadow and Naruto raised an eye brow.

"What?"

"Your mate's taking so long I died already." Shadow smiled and when he heard Naruto laughing slightly, he rolled over onto his stomach. "Is she almost done yet?" he asked.

"Yea, she just needs to pay and then we can go eat." Answered Naruto. He sat down next to Shadow and waited.

It was another seven minutes before Sakura came out of the store carrying five bags full of clothes. Naruto shoved Shadow, who had decided to take a small nap around four minutes ago. "Wake up, she's out." He said as he stood up.

Shadow yawned and sat up. "Ugh… finally." He said before walking over to the other two. "Now where do we go?" he asked, still a little groggy.

"Duh, to eat." Said Naruto as Sakura handed him all of her bags. "Hey, why do _I_ have to carry 'em?" he asked.

"You don't have to if you hurry up and seal them already." She said. She had never really seen anyone use sealing scrolls up close and was curious as to how it worked. Naruto dropped all the bags on the ground and Sakura glared at him. "What the hell did you drop them for?" she asked.

Naruto just smiled. "I need to look for the seals and I can't do that if my hands are full." He pulled his pack off his back and looked through it, and after a couple of seconds, he pulled out some pieces of paper. "Here, now, you need to separate your stuff into groups. You know, like, shirts, pants, underwear, and any other stuff." He said.

"It's all already separated." Said Sakura and she grabbed two of the bags. "These two are shirts," she grabbed another one, "this is pants and shorts," she pointed at another, "that's my… well my under-uh, garments," her cheeks were a little red since Shadow was there, "and this one's two pairs of ninja boots and some of my favorite shampoo I found."

Naruto put four scrolls on the ground under the bags. "Normally I wouldn't seal the bags but unless you wanna dump all your stuff on the ground over the scrolls, I'll just seal 'em with the bags and we can take 'em out later." He said before drawing some seals on the pieces of paper. Every time he finished drawing the seals, the bags over the scroll would disappear in a puff of smoke. "There we go." He said after he finished sealing the last bag. He grabbed the scrolls and handed them to Sakura.

Sakura took the scrolls and looked at them. "So all my stuff is in these little pieces of paper?" she asked in awe. Naruto nodded before starting to walk down the street and Sakura followed him. "So… now what do I do with them?" she asked.

"You put them away, duh." said Naruto as he looked around for somewhere to eat.

"Well, I know that much but where?" she asked again, her eye brow twitching a little.

"Um… put 'em in my pack if you want." He said and Sakura nodded. He felt a tug on his back when she stuffed the scrolls in his pack. They kept walking, Naruto looking for somewhere to eat, for another five minutes when, "Yes!" yelled Naruto, scaring Sakura and making Shadow sigh.

"Damn, I was hoping there wasn't going to be one here." Said Shadow as Naruto ran towards a small stand on the side of the road. Shadow followed, shaking his head the whole way.

Sakura stared at Shadow, then Naruto and finally she looked at the stand he was headed for. "A Ramen stand?" she asked no one in particular but Shadow heard her.

"Yea… Master Naruto has a strange obsession with Ramen." Shadow said before sighing. "Every single town we go to, he looks for a Ramen place. If he finds one, we end up staying longer than usual, and if not, we leave after restocking our supplies." Right after he finished, they arrived at the stand and saw Naruto already sitting down in one of the chairs.

"So that's why your mouth tastes a little like Ramen." Said Sakura as she took a seat next to Naruto. Naruto ordered a large Miso Ramen while Sakura ordered a medium shrimp one. "You know," started Sakura while they waited for their orders, "I don't usually eat Ramen, but I'll make an exception since I'm really hungry." She smiled at the look on his face.

Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. "An exception cause you're hungry?" he asked in a disbelieving tone. "Sakura, what's wrong with Ramen? It's one of the best things made by humans." He half yelled.

Sakura smiled a little more. "Sorry, Naruto, I just don't like it that much. I mean, I'll eat it occasionally, but I like other things more." She said as the chef put the bowls down in front of them, ignoring what Sakura was saying. Sakura and Naruto picked up some chop sticks and split them.

"Itadakimasu." They both said together before digging into their bowls. Naruto swallowed the noodles he had in his mouth before turning towards Sakura.

"This is pretty good." He said and returned to eating is Ramen, making semi-loud slurping noises. Sakura swallowed the noodles she had in her mouth as well before speaking.

"Yeah, but I think the Ramen in Konoha is a little better." She looked at Naruto. "I remember Ichiraku's won an award a while back. I don't remember if it was for best Ramen in fire country or the five countries." She shrugged and took another mouthful of noodles. "Whatever it won, Mr. Ichiraku was real excited."

Naruto guessed this Mr. Ichiraku was the owner of Ichiraku's. He finished his bowl quickly and ordered a second one while Sakura was still only halfway done. This continued for a while, Naruto eating two bowls in the amount it took Sakura to eat one until they had had their fill. By the end, Naruto had eaten nine bowls and Sakura three. They paid for their food and left.

A little away from the stand they found Shadow lying on the ground and figured he had fallen asleep. This was proven wrong when he rose up as soon as they got close enough. "You two had your fill?" he asked and they nodded. "So now where are we heading?"

"I dunno, let's just wander around, see what else this town has before we leave." Said Naruto. Sakura and Shadow nodded and they started walking down the street. Naruto and Shadow felt like something odd was going to happen, but they both brushed it off as nothing. Though when the ground below them suddenly split in two, they figured they shouldn't have.

Naruto picked Sakura up bridal style and leapt away from the splitting earth while Shadow leapt in the opposite direction. When Naruto looked back to see who, or what, had done that, he saw the face of the one human who had been able to literally beat him to a pulp.

"Looks like we meet again, you face stealing, son impersonating, demon."

**To Be Continued……..**

AN/ Yea, I know finally I finished. I'm sure you guys got a little; okay more than a little, annoyed I was taking so long, so I apologize for that. It's not my fault though. Blame procrastination! Anyways, There's chapter… uh, what was it? 4? Whatever it is, it's there. And, yes, I know the beginning was a little boring but, I was under pressure and it wasn't coming to me so sorry for that too. I'd like to say one last thing, please review.


	5. Author's Note

**Author's Note**

While it pains me to say this, I will be taking a break from writing. This means that those of you who are waiting for an update to any of my fics, will have to wait even longer, which sucks cause I was about to post 'NWD" chapter 5. I will not be posting more chapters until I have recovered from what this site has done to me recently.

The reason for this break is that there are way too many angst fics in the NaruSaku section. Although I have no problem with a small amount of angst, these recent fics have been going **_too far_** for the fics to be called NaruSaku stories, A.K.A., they have Sakura sleeping with someone else, betraying Naruto's trust, marrying someone else, and the list goes on. It is because of these fics, that do not deserve to be in the NaruSaku filter, that I am too bothered to write anymore, or post the chapter. Because of people trying to bring down the quality of NaruSaku fics, I have become depressed, and angry.

I just have one question before I leave... What the hell!? Why are people, who probably don't like the NaruSaku couple in the first place and are only trying to mess with us who do, posting these pieces of crap in this filter!? What motivates someone to write a story where the female completely betrays the trust of the male!? The people who write stories like that are sick people, and I have suffered because of them. I already have a weak mental state, but after reading those types of stories, I'm afraid I have cracked, again. I will be back, once I feel better, but until then, you will have to be patient.

The last thing I'd like to say is that I'm sorry to those of you who have waited patiently for the new Chapter. I will try to get better soon, but these stories have really messed me up. And just because I'm taking a break from writing(And by the way people, Born isn't writing this, I'm his friend Jason, writing whatever this ingrate, Born, says), doesn't mean you can't contact me. I will still be on my computer but I will be avoiding my story files. Once again, I'm sorry for this but I don't want to post a chapter that sucks, I wanna put good chapters, that I'm afraid I can't come up with in my current condition.

-Born From a NaruSaku Lemon(and Jason)


	6. Chapter 5

AN/ Yo, what's up everyone?

I'm sure most of you are pretty mad that I took so long, but it's not my fault, Every time I got better, I somehow ended up reading another story like the one that got me into this mess in the first place. I'm too curious for my own good.

Lastly, I'd like to thank all of you for being so understanding, and for your reviews, and messages, on it, they really helped me get out of that state faster.

Now, let's get to the story.

Warning: There will be death, blood, violence and other stuff in this chapter, stuff I haven't thought of as of yet but probably will. You have been warned.

P.S., I know that the Fourth's name isn't Arashi Kazama, but I have a plan for Minato and Kushina, so just go with it until I reveal my plan, then you can decide to ditch the fic, if you think it sucks. Until then, just go along with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and I most likely never will, seeing as I am poor, dirt poor.

"Speech"

'_Thought'_

_**'Inner Sakura'**_

**"Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter 5: Escape and Release

A tall, red haired man sighed as he continued his 'walk' through a forest, the screams that came from the direction he was heading towards were starting to annoy him. His red, vertically slit eyes constantly scanned the forest as he walked, looking for anyone foolish enough to attack him. As he continued to walk, with his hands in the pockets of his black pants, his black trench coat waved behind him, causing the sword on his back to shake slightly.

Anyone trained in the art of combat could feel the killer intent that the sword emanated. And, although it was enough to suffocate weaker foes, it paled in comparison to the amount that it's wielder could emit, which could make even the roughest and toughest of men drop to his knees, begging to be spared.

The man soon reached a clearing, in the middle of which, a short, spiky haired figure could be seen, maneuvering between demons, dodging swipes from axes and clubs, and blocking slashes with it's own weapon, a sword, similar to the one that the red haired man had.

There seemed to be four large, bear like demons, wearing armor on their chests and shoulders, struggling to defeat the four foot figure, who kept either parrying their strikes, or dodging them. Whenever there was an opening, the short warrior would attack by slashing or stabbing them with his sword. So far, from the starting group of fifteen or so demons, as could be estimated from the dead bodies on the ground, only four were left.

Red eyes watched as the small figure blocked a swing of an ax with it's sword, before pushing the demon back, and jumping into the air. Swinging it's blade in a horizontal motion on it's way down, decapitating the smallest of the bear like demons, it landed a few feet from it's original position, holding it's sword held out parallel to the ground with it's right hand, and his back to the small group of demons.

The moonlight shone down upon the small figure, illuminating it, somewhat.

It appeared to be a young boy, dressed in a sleeveless black shirt with brown stitching, forming rocky patterns on the shirt. He also had a pair of baggy pants, that seemed a little bit worn and torn from the knees, down, and a few chains were dangling from the straps that would normally hold a belt. The sword he held was reflecting too much light for any one to see if there was a design on it.

His hair was spiky, and it appeared to be yellow with a bit of red here and there. Due to the fact he was facing away, none of his facial features could be seen at the moment.

When two thuds, that signaled the decapitated demon, and it's head, had hit the ground, were heard, the small boy raised his arm up and placed his sword on his shoulder, with a dark liquid running down the dull side of the blade, before turning his body to look at the remaining demons with glowing, red eyes, a small smirk visible on his whiskered face in the light of the moon.

The small group of demons glared at the boy, angered, and a little frightened, that he had managed to kill their pact so quickly and easily. One of the demons, the one to the left, was shaking slightly, and his eyes were darting between the young boy's form, and a small opening in the surrounding forest, while the other two just clenched their weapons, a pair of axes and a sword, tighter.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the small boy launched his sword at the shaking demon, stabbing it in the leg, and rooting it to the ground. The other two demons used it's yell of pain as a battle cry, charging the dual haired boy while he appeared to be defenseless, while their injured comrade tried desperately to remove the blade from it's calf.

The boy didn't seem to be intimidated as he, also, charged, though he was much quicker, and as soon as he was within striking distance of the demon wielding the sword, he dropped to the ground, sliding under the demon's legs, scratching it with his claw-like nails. It let out a yelp of pain, similar to the demon before, and dropped to it's knees, impaling it's sword in the ground to help keep it from falling completely.

As soon as the boy was past the demon, he got back to his feet and continued running forward, in the direction of the impaled demon. When he reached it, the first thing he did was kick it on it's elbows, successfully breaking them, making it's arms useless, before grabbing the hilt of his blade and pulling it up.

Not a second after he freed his sword, he had to block a swing from one the uninjured demon's axes. He quickly pushed the demon back, causing it to miss a strike from it's other ax completely. Before it could regain it's balance, the boy swung his sword down, in a downwards vertical swipe from the left, cutting the demon across it's large stomach. When it dropped it's axes and fell to it's knees, the red eyed boy swung his sword horizontally, cutting the top half of it's head off.

The dual haired boy didn't even wait for the body to completely fall to the ground before turning his attention to the demon next to him. He swung his sword downwards, cutting the broken demon in half from head to pelvic bone. Then, hearing some heavy footsteps, the young boy jumped to the right just in time to dodge a swipe from the last remaining demon, who seemed to be ignoring the pain in it's legs.

It lifted it's large sword and charged after the boy again, though it was much slower than before. The boy took noticed of this and waited for it to get close enough. Once it was, he ducked a swing from it, that appeared to be an attempt at decapitating him, and he swung his weapon above him, cutting the demon's hands clean off. It roared in pain, but was silenced when it also lost it's head.

The boy watched the body fall to the ground, and waited till he heard the head also hit the ground before lowering his arm and relaxing. Too engrossed in his own thoughts, he didn't notice someone appear behind him until he was kneed in the back and sent flying forward. Turning his body, he landed on a rock that was protruding from the ground.

When he looked over to see who had struck him, he found the clearing empty. Before he could react, he was kicked on the side of the head and sent skidding on the forest ground, only stopping when his back hit a tree. While he tried to get up, he felt someone put their foot on his chest, roughly, causing him to have the wind knocked out of him.

"Never drop your guard until you know that there are no more enemies in the area." He heard a cold, emotionless voice above him. When he opened his eyes, he stared into the red eyes of the person that had taken him from his home, and bought him out to a village close to their current location.

The younger of the two males tried to speak, but found that he couldn't while the older one was stepping on his chest. He opened his right hand and dug his claws into the red head's leg, but it didn't seem to do anything as all he did in response was put more pressure on his chest before getting off.

The boy took in a few breaths before sitting up, glaring at the older male, and getting up to go pick up his sword, which was knocked out of his hands when he was kicked. He found it sticking out of the ground near the rock he had landed on a few minutes prior. When he pulled it out, he found that there was still a bit of blood on it. Swinging the blade in the air in an attempt to clean it of the black substance, he looked over at the red haired man.

"So, did you do whatever it is that you needed me to come along with you to do?" Asked the dual haired boy, inspecting his sword for any remaining blood before strapping it on his back.

"Unfortunately," the man began, "what we came here to get isn't here anymore. It was moved to a village in the middle of The Land of Waves, so that's where we're heading right now." He said, turning to leave. "Now, let's go, Oujou." Ordered the taller male, before heading through the forest.

The boy, now known as Oujou, sighed, tired of having to follow his older brother around like an idiot. He pondered just leaving and heading home, but then an image of his mother came into his mind and he figured he'd rather follow his brother around, aimlessly, in the Human Realm, than be around her in the Demon Realm.

Sighing once more, he began walking in the direction his brother went, leaving the bodies of the bear demons to rot. They had proven to be useful at passing the time while he had been waiting for his brother to return, and they had just practically begged to be killed after one of them had called him a human.

* * *

**------ Somewhere in Tanzaku-----**

A man with long, gray hair, that seemed to defy the laws of gravity, walked through the streets of the village, all the while reading from a little, orange book. He wore dark blue, long sleeved shirt, and pants, with a green vest and a metal plated headband that was tilted so it covered his left eye.

As he walked, he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was gonna happen, and soon. He thought about his team and wondered if they were okay. He knew he didn't have to worry about Sasuke and Sai too much, seeing as one was an ANBU, as he had found out about from the Hokage, and the other was strong enough to join ANBU pretty soon, but his last student, Sakura, was another case.

He didn't think Sakura was weak, she was a great ninja, able to come out of tight situations, and pull through when the others needed her most, but that didn't make up for the fact that Sakura was the weakest of the team. It was probably because of this that enemies ignored her, causing her to work twice as hard to prove them wrong.

The silver haired man passed a clothing store, and heard some of what one of the sales women was telling another one. It was something about a strange young boy getting punched across the back room by a pink haired girl, after he walked in on her while she was changing. For some reason, he thought of his student, Sakura, when he heard it was a pink haired girl, but his book, and the bad feeling he had, took his mind away from it, but mostly his book.

As he continued to walk, he kept thing about his team, and about the reason he wasn't with them right now. He had been given an A-rank mission, with Genma Shiranui and Aoba Yamashiro, two fellow Jonin, in which he had to go free a village, from a large group of B-class bear demons, near the border of fire country. While he was battling one of them, he asked why they were attacking the village, and it told him something about a pair of demon swords the village was rumored to have in it's possession.

After the demons were defeated, with a group of almost twenty fleeing, he had talked to the leader of the village about it, and he was told that there weren't any 'demon swords' in the village. Figuring it wasn't really any of his concern, at the moment, he had decided to drop it, but he was definitely going to inform the Hokage about it when he returned.

A few minutes later, the man felt a familiar chakra signature somewhere nearby, but it was too faint for him to identify it correctly, so he decided to focus more on his book.

_'Now where was I?'_ He thought, skimming through the page, searching for where he left off. As soon as he found his spot, there was some rumbling, and then a loud crash on the opposite side of town. Sighing, he closed his book and tucked it into his weapons pouch.

_'Better go see what that's about.' _He thought, heading towards the cause of the commotion.

* * *

**----- Other side of Tanzaku----**

Naruto jumped back, avoiding a tree trunk that the insane blond woman had thrown at him, after she had ripped it from the ground, while holding tightly onto Sakura, who he picked up a few minutes ago and had yet to let down. He had been forced to drop his genjutsu, seeing as there would be no point in keeping it up if he was already caught. Landing a few yards away, he turned to look at the unidentified woman.

"What the hell's wrong with you?!" He yelled, shaking his left hand around in the air, while the other held Sakura close to him, should they have to jump away again. He took in a deep breath, about to yell again, but was silenced when the woman picked up a stone bench like it was nothing and threw it at them, or more specifically, him.

"Damn." Was all he said as he picked Sakura up again and jumped away. Sakura was confused, why was this woman just attacking them for no reason? And, more importantly, how was she able to make giant cracks in the ground, and lift things up so easily?

Before either Naruto or Sakura could say anything, the woman spoke up.

"Why don't you let the girl go and fight me, demon?" she taunted. She lifted her leg and slammed it onto the ground, causing another fissure to head their way. "Stop using her as a shield!" she yelled when Naruto picked Sakura up again and jumped away.

"Tsunade-sama!" A voice was heard from the street behind the blond woman. A few seconds later, the woman Naruto remembered seeing last time showed up, holding the pig with the red jacket. "Tsunade-sama, what are you doing?" asked the dark-haired woman, her eyes staring at her friend, who was, once again, drunk.

"This." Was all she said as she tore a street lamp out of the ground and flung it towards Naruto, growling in frustration as he once again picked up Sakura and jumped away. She decided she would have to make him put his hostage down herself, and began sprinting in the direction to where they were heading, ignoring Shizune's frantic screaming.

_'Damn it,'_ Naruto thought as he saw the woman, Tsunade, if he heard right, running towards him and Sakura, _'where's Shadow? We have to get out of here but we can't just leave him behind.' _Then he spotted a black figure on the roof of a nearby building. As soon as the busty blond swung a punch, that was aimed between them, in hopes to split him from the girl, they disappeared.

They reappeared next to Shadow, Sakura a bit dazed from the speed in which they had traveled.

"Wow, never thought we'd see her again, or not so soon anyways." Shadow spoke, watching Tsunade as she searched for Naruto, missing Naruto's nod. "Anyways," Shadow continued, still looking at Tsunade, who had been joined by her companion, "what now?" He asked, too focused on the two woman, and the pig, to notice someone was closing in on them.

"We run." Naruto said, also not taking notice of the approaching person until he heard Sakura gasp.

"Kakashi-sensei?" She muttered, confused as she was still a little dizzy, causing Naruto to turn around just in time to see a man with gray hair launch kunai at him and Shadow, with deadly accuracy.

* * *

Kakashi had hurried up his pace as he continued to hear what sounded like mini explosions. When he hear someone shout, "Why don't you let the girl go and fight me, Demon," he knew it was a matter that he would probably be needed for, especially since it seemed to involve a demon. 

What had really gotten him to take this seriously was when he heard someone scream, "Tsunade-sama." He, figuring that Tsunade of the legendary Sannin was in trouble, quickened his pace and before long, he had arrived at the scene, only to be shocked when he saw that his student was being held by a pair of demons.

He reached into his kunai pouch and when he heard they were going to run and threw them, aiming to hit the demons from behind, but then one of them, the human looking one with blond hair, turned around and spotted him. He quickly shouted at his companion to move out of the way before he jumped away, taking Sakura with him.

Kakashi followed after the blond demon, launching a few shuriken at where he was going to land. It seemed the demon hadn't noticed as he landed right on them, put he was unaffected. It was then Kakashi noticed this demon was wearing shoes, something most demons he has encountered don't.

Not about to let a demon take his student, he began charging chakra into his legs as he descended, bursting into a full sprint toward them as soon as he landed, pulling out a kunai along the way.

* * *

Naruto hadn't expected Kakashi to move so fast as he was caught off guard when the gray-haired man came up behind him and put a kunai to his throat. 

"Let her go." Kakashi ordered, and Naruto, although reluctantly, let Sakura go. As soon as Sakura was released from Naruto's hold, they felt the ground beneath them start trembling slightly, and Naruto knew what this meant. Sakura was forced to move towards a street lamp and hold onto it to keep herself from falling, but that also meant she was a few yards away from Naruto.

"Damn." Naruto muttered, turning his head to the left a bit to watch as Tsunade stomped over to them, obviously not seeing the point of running, seeing as he was, at the moment, captured. Naruto could only watch in fear as Tsunade stalked closer, his body not responding to what his mind was telling him, as it could already feel the blows it would receive.

Sakura was about to plead with her sensei to let Naruto go, but Tsunade had shouted out before she could even open her mouth.

"I'll take that demon, now, Kakashi." She spoke, her tone just daring anyone to say no. Kakashi nodded, recognizing that tone from when Tsunade had been in Konoha before she had left, after the Kyuubi attack almost twenty years ago. He turned his attention to his student, who was wearing clothes that appeared to be a little dirty, and there was a cut visible on her spandex shorts, though the white mini skirt she had put on helped conceal it.

"God damn it, Master Naruto, can't you ever stay out of trouble?" Shadow said as he suddenly appeared and jumped on Kakashi from the right side, causing him to fall over and release Naruto.

As soon as Tsunade noticed that Naruto was free, she slammed her heel into the ground, causing a chunk of rock to lift up, almost like a wall in front of her. Then, in the very second that it came up, she began to punch it, repeatedly, sending rocks, the size of her fists, speeding towards Naruto and Shadow, though she wasn't as accurate as Kakashi doing this. The two starting dodging and swatting some away as best they could, with Shadow jumping away, into an alley way, after a few seconds.

Naruto stayed, trying to maneuver towards Sakura, while Kakashi was trying to pull Sakura out of the way, but she wouldn't let go. Kakashi kept asking Sakura why she refused to leave, but all she would do was try to shake her arm, which Kakashi was gripping, away and tell him to let her go.

"Let me go, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled, trying to break free of his grip, while glancing back towards Naruto every couple of seconds.

"Sakura, we have to leave, Tsunade-sama can handle this." Kakashi said, trying once more to pull Sakura away from the scene, but she just wouldn't let go. _'What's wrong with her?'_ Kakashi thought. _'Can't she see we have to get out of here?' _He glanced towards the demon, and for the first time, got a good look at his face.

"What the..." Kakashi mumbled, his grip on Sakura loosening considerably. The demon looked almost identical to his late sensei, save for the whiskers and fox ears. Kakashi was too wrapped up in his thoughts about how it was possible for a demon to look so much like his sensei that he didn't notice when Sakura pulled herself free of his grip.

Naruto kept dodging the rocks that were being thrown at him, trying to figure out a way to get to Sakura. Suddenly, the rocks stopped, causing him to look over at where Tsunade was at, or at least, where she used to be.

Before he knew what was happening, Tsunade jumped down from a roof that was behind him and punched him from behind, only to have him dodge and duck under her outstretched arm, heading towards Sakura, who at the moment was also heading in his direction.

As soon as they reached each other, they disappeared, much to Tsunade's frustration. She turned towards Kakashi and glared. Slowly, almost menacingly, she walked towards him, fully intending to hurt him for letting that face snatching demon get away. That is, until the immense amount of alcohol in her system caught up with her, causing her to pass out.

Several yards away, Shizune gasped before running towards Tsunade as she saw her begin to fall, knowing she wouldn't be able to reach her in time to catch her in time. Out of no where, a man wearing a baggy green shirt and pants, with a red vest and a horned metal plate on his head with the kanji symbol for oil, appeared, catching the blond woman seconds before she hit the ground.

The man then stood up, bringing Tsunade with him, and smiled at Shizune, who had a surprised expression on her face, before glancing at Kakashi, who looked back at him, surprised but sad that he had let his student get kidnapped.

"What's everyone staring at?"

* * *

Naruto and Sakura appeared on a building on the opposite side of town from, Sakura again dizzy and Naruto trying to find Shadow's chakra signature or scent, so that they could finally leave. When he couldn't pinpoint him, he sighed and redoubled his effort. 

"Ugh... my head..." Sakura mumble, holding her head as she tried to get it to stop spinning. She didn't think she'd ever get used to traveling at that speed. When she finally regain her senses, she looked over at Naruto, watching as he stood over the railing of the roof, eyes closed and ears moving up and down, a sigh escaping his lips every once in a while.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" She asked, moving over to stand next to him. He remained quiet for a while longer, the only sound being his breathing, before he sighed, loudly.

"I'm trying to find Shadow." He said, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. _'Damn it, where is he?!'_ Naruto thought, getting frustrated with himself for being unable to find his companion, and for having left without him. After the eight time he was unsuccessful at pinpointing Shadow, he decided to take out his frustration out on the poor roof railing, which he had been gripping tightly as he searched.

Sakura was standing next to Naruto, watching as his ears twitched around, and his hands kept gripping tighter and tighter on the metal railing. She felt that it was her fault that Shadow had been left behind. While she was thinking of something to say to Naruto, she heard a metallic bang. Startled, she looked over at Naruto, who had his fist on the dented metal railing of the roof.

"Where the hell is Shadow?" Naruto asked aloud. Sakura was about to apologize to Naruto for making him leave without Shadow, but she was interrupted by someone else.

"I'm right here." They heard Shadow's voice from behind them, causing them to whip their heads around. Behind them sat Shadow, looking at them, a tired expression on his face.

"Shadow, where were you?" Naruto asked.

"You know, I don't really know..." Shadow lied. There were a few things about his life that Naruto didn't have to know about, just yet. Naruto face-faulted at his answer.

"What do you mean you 'don't really know'?!" He yelled after he got back up. Shadow just shrugged.

"Just what it sounds like, I don't really know. One second, I'm running into the alleyway, to get away from that crazy lady, and the next, I'm in some kind of forest. Then I was back in the alley, and I went searching for you two." Shadow explained, looking around. "Anyways, we leaving yet, or you wanna wait till that woman finds us again till we leave?"

"Why would I wanna wait for her to find me again?" Naruto asked, looking at Shadow like he was an idiot. Sakura smacked her forehead, amazed at how dense Naruto could be while Shadow just rolled his eyes.

"Naruto, he was being sarcastic." Sakura told him, pinching the bridge of her nose. Naruto blushed a bit in embarrassment, which went unnoticed by Sakura due to her having her eyes closed. When Naruto cleared his throat, Sakura opened one of her eyes and stared at him.

"Yea, I knew that, I was just playing." Naruto muttered before straightening up. "Anyways, I think we should get outta here before she finds us again." He stated. Before looking over at Sakura. "Come on, Sakura, I'm gonna carry you on my back again."

Sakura put her hands on her hips. "I can move on my own, thank you." She responded, turning her head to the side, only to give a shriek of surprise when Naruto pick her up, bridal style, from behind.

"I know you can, Sakura, but we're gonna be moving fast, and I don't want you to get tired, so lemme carry you." He said to her, smiling. Then he looked over at Shadow, not noticing Sakura was blushing because of where his right hand was; right under her right breast.

"So where do we go now?" Shadow asked, getting up from his sitting position. Naruto's face took on a thoughtful expression for a while, before he starting looking around.

"Uh... How about we go... South?" Naruto suggested, trying to point to the left with his left hand, which was holding the back of Sakura's knees. though it was proving difficult, as he didn't want to drop Sakura.

Said girl, after having made herself comfortable while Naruto was thinking, looked around, noticing that Naruto was pointing the wrong way. "Uh, Naruto, you're pointing West." She said. Naruto laughed nervously.

"Then we're going to the West. I don't care where as long as we get outta here." He said, shifting Sakura in his arms, causing her to get out of the comfy position she had found. "So, Shadow, race you to the first clearing in the West!" He quickly shouted before disappearing with Sakura.

A few minutes later, they reappeared in a small clearing near a river, with a small cave on the bottom of a small cliff. Naruto smiled, thinking he had beat Shadow, only to frown when he saw him drinking water from the river.

"Damn." he muttered as he put Sakura down, only to have catch her when she lost her balance and started to fall. "You alright, Sakura?" He asked, a concerned look on his face. Sakura groaned, her head still spinning from moving at such a fast speed, for a longer period of time than before. It took a minute for the dizziness to lighten up, in which Naruto had put her down at the base of a nearby tree.

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to moving that fast." She mumbled, causing Naruto to grin.

"Nah, you will." He said, still grinning. "Shadow felt the same as you at first, but look at him know. He's faster than I am." It was then she noticed Shadow was there, as well as what the clearing looked like.

The crescent moon above provided just enough light to see the clearing pretty well, with a bit of the light reflecting off the river's surface, making the leaves on the tree on the other side of the river look as though they were moving. There were a few rocks, both large and small, spread along the clearing, and a small cave at the bottom of a small cliff. In short, it looked like a scene from a portrait about nature; simple yet beautiful.

"Hello, Sakura, anybody home?" Naruto said, waving his hand in front of Sakura's face, successfully snapping her out of her state of awe.

"Huh?" Came her unintelligent response.

"I said, 'do you wanna take a bath, me and Shadow are gonna go get some firewood, we'll even take some extra time so you don't have to hurry.'" He said. "Lemme know so I can give you some of your clothes."

"Yeah, okay." she agreed, glad to be able to take a bath after two days.

She watched as Naruto pulled out her four scrolls and bit his thumb before spreading the small amount of blood across the four seals. The next second after he did that, there were four poofs of smoke. After the smoke cleared, which wasn't long, only three seconds at the most, she found her bags of clothes on the ground.

"There you go." Naruto exclaimed loudly. "Well, we'll see you in a bit, Sakura." Naruto said before turning and jumping up the side of the cliff, Shadow following close behind.

Once she was alone, she rummaged through her bags, looking for her shampoo and clothes to wear. Once she found them, she walked over to the river and set her stuff near the ledge. Quickly, she undressed herself, making sure to stay alert, in case someone, or something, came along.

When she was done, she dipped her foot into the water to test the temperature. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't freezing, either. Figuring a cold bath was better than no bath, she took a breath and walked in until she was waist deep before beginning her bath. She wanted to finish fast, before Naruto and Shadow returned.

* * *

Three hours later found Naruto and Sakura cuddled up together inside the cave, with Shadow sleeping outside. Sakura had her head on Naruto's left shoulder, and Naruto had his left arm around her, pulling her close. The fire was lite almost directly at the entrance of the cave, and they had one of Naruto's old blankets wrapped around them 

Both were nervous about what was about to happen; Naruto because he had no idea how to begin this, and Sakura because this was like getting married, something she hadn't planned on doing so soon. As the time passed, their nervousness grew, with neither being successful at calming their nerves. Finally, after almost twenty minutes, Naruto spoke.

"Sakura," he began, gaining her attention, "do you wanna... um..." he began to draw circles on her shoulder, "Do you want me to... you know..." He stared at her, hoping she would know what he was talking about.

Sakura stared back at him, knowing what he was trying to say, but nervous about actually doing it. She took a couple of breaths, closed her eyes and nodded. When almost a minute passed and he hadn't moved, she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Naruto?" She called, making him take his gaze from the flickering flames and shift it towards her. In his eyes she could see a bit of hesitation. "What's wrong?" she asked, wondering why he wasn't moving to mark her.

Naruto smiled sheepishly, moving his right hand up to scratch the back of his head lightly. "Uh, nothing, really, just don't know how to start this, since, you know, I've never done this before." He admitted, making her smile due to his honesty, something most guys wouldn't do.

"Well, how is this supposed to happen, normally?" She asked.

Naruto tried to remember some of the things other demons have told him. "Well... I'm just supposed to bite into your neck... and push a bit of my chakra into you through the bite mark." He said, noticing she had moved her hand to the side of her neck.

"Is that the only way to do this?" She asked, wondering about how much it would hurt. Naruto nodded, making her unconsciously clutch her neck a little tighter. Naruto noticed this movement, too.

"Sakura," she loosened her grip on her neck and looked at him, "if you don't wanna do this, we don't have to, we could alwa_**-**_"

"_**-**_No," she interrupted, "I said I wanted this, and besides," she smiled at him, "if we get this done now, we won't have to worry about it later." she said, removing her hand from her neck. Naruto nodded, before moving his head towards hers. He gave her a soft kiss on the lips, then started trailing a few kisses to her neck.

Once there, he licked the spot where her neck met her shoulder for a bit, with her tilting her head back a little, allowing him easier reach. He sucked on her neck for a while before he sank his fangs into her skin, causing her to grunt softly. He applied a little more pressure to his bite before focusing his chakra to his canines and pushing it into the opening in her skin. This caused Sakura to feel a small burning sensation on her neck, due to his demonic chakra entering her body.

After what, to Sakura, felt like hours, Naruto saw a small black mark begin to appear at the base of her neck, resembling what looked like a circle with a fox claw inside. After it became completely visible, it flashed quickly and afterwards, the circle had turned from black to blue, and the paw turned red.

Naruto slowly and carefully pulled his teeth out of her neck and began to lick her wound, which bled briefly. After it stopped, he pulled back and smiled at Sakura.

"All done." He told her. A small smile passed her face before her eyes closed and she started to slump over. Naruto quickly grabbed her shoulder and brought her back up. Due to her soft breathing he guessed she had fallen asleep, like he had said might happen earlier in the day. Gently, he lay down, with her laying on him, her head on his chest and left shoulder, with the blanket covering them.

_'I can't believe it.'_ Naruto thought, moving some of Sakura's hair out of her face. _'I can't believe I have such a beautiful mate.' _The same thought kept passing through his mind; he now had a mate. After ten more minutes, he decided to join her in sleep, but not before making one handed seals and putting out the fire.

* * *

**------- In Tanzaku-----**

Kakashi and Shizune sat with the white haired man, after having put Tsunade in the bedroom next door. There was a moment of silence before the man spoke;

"So, you're telling me, Shizune, Kakashi, that Tsunade-hime attacked that demon because he looked like Arashi?" The two nodded. "And," he turned to Kakashi, "that the demon took your student with him?" Kakashi nodded, looking down in shame for allowing a demon to take his pupil.

The man sighed before reaching across the table they were sitting at for the sake. After he poured and drank a saucer, he looked up at the ceiling.

"That demon isn't Arashi, and I don't think he stole his face." Said the man, closing his eyes as Shizune stared at him. "And I don't think he abducted your student, Kakashi." Kakashi looked up at him.

"How do you know, Jiraiya-sama?" Kakashi asked, wondering why he had said that.

Jiraiya turned his gaze from the ceiling to Kakashi. "Because, I have met him before, and I've talked to him; heck, I taught him about seals." Kakashi arched an eyebrow at this.

"You taught a demon about seals?"

Jiraiya smiled. "I wasn't going to at first, but the way he seemed so interested in them, and the fact that he could use demonic chakra, combined with the way he acted, just made me give in to his request." Jiraiya explained, pouring himself some more sake.

"He could use demonic chakra?" Kakashi asked, amazed. Only a few demons could do that, and those were the ones in the higher A-class. Jiraiya nodded.

"Yeah, it surprised me too, but I think what really made me decide to teach him was his similarities to Arashi." He drank his sake, a faint pink hue appearing on his cheeks. "And if he's still the same as when I taught him, I don't think he's capable of taking a girl against her will."

"Why do you say that, Jiraiya-sama?" asked Shizune, who eyed the sake with a small glare. How she hated sake, it was cause of that devil's blood liquid that her master was so mean to her, and her pig, Tonton, most of the time.

"Because, Naruto respects, and protects, women; he'd never do something that would make them uncomfortable." Jiraiya stated, making Kakashi furrow his eyebrows.

"Then, Jiraiya-sama, why would Sakura go with him?" Asked Kakashi, thinking about how she refused to leave with him. "Unless..." Jiraiya smiled.

"She has fallen for him. It's not unheard of, a demon and a human falling in love, it's just pretty rare, especially now a days." said the aged Sannin, pouring himself some more sake. Kakashi couldn't figure out how it could have happened; his student... leaving with a demon... it didn't seem possible, but it had happened.

"Now," Jiraiya said, getting up after he finished his last saucer, "I think I should get going, have somewhere to get to." he said, moving to the window of the hotel room. "Oh, and, Shizune, when Tsunade wakes up, tell her to leave the poor boy alone, he isn't doing anything wrong." with that, Jiraiya jumped out the window, leaving a still stunned Kakashi, and Shizune, who had gone to empty the bottle of sake in the sink, behind.

* * *

-------- Somewhere near the border of Fire Country----- 

Oujou and his brother continued to walk, with Oujou walking with his hands folded behind his head, and his older brother with his hands in his pockets, their swords sending killer intent towards each other. After a while, they reached a cave near a fast flowing river.

"Stay here." Ordered the red haired man before walking into the cave. Oujou rolled his eyes.

"I'm not making any promises, take too long and I'll leave, again!" He shouted at his brother, grumbling when the guy didn't even acknowledge that he had heard him.

The older male continued to venture deeper and deeper into the cave, noticing that the end never seemed to get any closer. He narrowed his eyes dangerously before lifting his hand up and slashing in a horizontal motion, a wave of red chakra flying outwards from his nails.

Immediately, the surrounding walls distorted, before vanishing slowly. After the cave walls disappeared, the bodies of several demons became visible, some beheaded and some with open stomaches, and a metal door could be seen at the end of the cave. He walked up to it, swiping his claws at the locks that held it shut. He then proceeded in pushing the door open, it making a creaking noise as it opened.

Inside, skeletons could be seen with the light that leaked in from the open door. Movement could be heard from the left, and then a figure came into the light, it's yellow eyes studying the man in front of it. When it found that the man was stronger than it, it decided against attacking him.

"You are Ryuk, I presume?" The man asked, getting a nod from the demon. It then let out a raspy breath.

"And who, may I ask, is the one who released me?" It questioned, it's voice low, almost sounding like a raspy whisper.. The man simply walked farther into the room, his face becoming visible to the demon, causing it to gasp. "Kyuubi-Sama..."

**To Be Continued...**

AN/ Here's the real chapter five, I apologize for the wait, and I will try to not take a break like that again,. Anyways, there it is; a lot of people appeared and yes, Oujou is an OC, but he isn't all that important. For Kyuubi, just picture a red haired, red eyed Aizen, from Bleach. Now, I will try to get chapter 5 of JFO out as soon as possible, but now I need to sleep, so I'll fix any mistakes I missed tomorrow. Last thing before I go, please review.


	7. Chapter 6

AN/ Well...what can I say? It's been a while, I guess is good. Hopefully not too many people abandoned this fic. I apologize with the huge delay for this chapter, but I hit a bit bump in the road after the last chapter, for both fics. I realized that making an AU story that is drastically different from the anime is harder than I originally thought.

But when all seemed lost, I started thinking about where I wanted to take the story, and that made me think, 'Damn, unless I hurry up with the chapters that lead up to these parts, I'm most likely gonna forget about 'em.' So I forced myself to sit down and continue, 'cause I wanna share my ideas with other people. I like 'em, so hopefully, when the time comes, you will too.

Also, I bet a few people were confused as to how Shadow disappeared, and why his excuse sounded too simple. Well, here's a short explanation. After shadow had proven to be faster than Naruto, there have been a few instances in which Shadow has accidentally gone too fast and practically teleported away to somewhere pretty far off from where he intended. In the past it happened more frequently than it does now, and had resulted in them being separated for a few days a few times.

On a side note, I'm gonna fast forward in the story a bit. I think that if I write about every single day that passes in the story, not only will it take forever, we will all get bored... So without further ado, let chapter... uh... six begin.

Disclaimer:... seriously, I'm not even gonna bother with this anymore. We all know the drill by now, don't we?

"Speech"

_'Thought'_

_**'Inner Sakura'**_

"**(Unimportant)Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter Six: Mission to Wave

The air was blowing softly as Naruto, Sakura and Shadow walked down a quickly disappearing dirt road. It had already been a few days since the night that Naruto had marked Sakura, and the trio had run into Tsunade. Since then, they have been wandering around almost aimlessly, besides the fact that Sakura seemed intent on getting farther away from Konoha.

She knew her sensei had already reported to the Hokage about her abandoning her village for a Demon, and knew that the council would not turn the other cheek to this. They would mark her as a rogue nin. This meant that the next time she saw her friends, if she ever did, they would most likely try to capture her, or worse, and that saddened her.

Although she did not regret leaving with Naruto, she did hate the fact that because Demons and Humans did not get along, she and Naruto could not go to Konoha and she could never introduce him to her friends and her parents and vise-versa. She also knew, however, that her parents would have never approved of her relationship with the blond demon to her right, and that would be worse than not being able to see her friends and family.

The reason she chose Naruto over Konoha was because she had found out, in the days that they had gotten to know each other better, that he was every girl's dream. He was strong, good looking, and sympathetic. Sure, maybe he was lacking in the intellect category, but that was something that she could help him out with. After all, she was the brightest Kunoichi of her generation.

Naruto had also assured her that he was not gonna pressure her into things she felt she wasn't ready for. He felt he had already rushed her into being his mate, even though she told him she wanted him to mark her. So until they knew everything about each other, they would stick to kissing, to which Sakura agreed. She was, after all, only fifteen,and had never learned how to perform the jutsu Kunoichi used during missions in which they had to pose as whores at a brothel to prevent pregnancy.

Sakura silently cursed her mother for refusing to teach her that technique. It was a mother's duty in a ninja village to teach their daughters about those sorts of things.

As Sakura continued to mentally pile a list of what her mother had refused to teach her, she hadn't noticed that Naruto and Shadow had stopped until Shadow called out to her.

"Hey, Pinky, where are you going?" he asked, making her stop and turn around glaring.

"I Told you to not call me that!" she shouted. Shadow seemed to ignore her as he turned to look at Naruto.

"What do you think is going on over there?" he asked, ignoring his blond master's pink headed mate. The only indication said blond gave of hearing his question was a flick of one of his yellow fox ears.

"I dunno, sounds like a run-of-the-mill argument." he said, trying to block Sakura's whispered curses at Shadow and hear the dispute happening not too far into the forest along the path they were taking. "But—"

"—I smell a demon in that direction." Shadow said, his ears tilting to the sides slightly. "And one of those voices sounds... off." Shadow commented. Naruto nodded his head, indicating that he had noticed the same thing.

"Go check it out, Shadow." Naruto ordered. At this point, Sakura had had enough of their whispering,

"Don't ignore me, you dirty fox!" she yelled, referring to Shadow's jet black fur, only to get madder when said jet black fox ran off into the forest.. "Shadow, where the hell are you going!?" she half-yelled, walking back to where Naruto was. Naruto's ears twitched again.

"Sakura-chan," he began, adding the -chan she had taught him about a few days back, "let's go. I think someone over there's about to get hurt, so I sent Shadow to check it out, first." he finished, making Sakura stop in her tracks.

"Oh. Um, okay." she said, watching as Naruto broke into a grin.

"Race you there." He challenged, making Sakura smile. She couldn't help it, the way he could take a serious situation like this and make it seem like a game, was a skill she knew only he could pull off.

"Your on." she accepted, know full well that he wasn't gonna go as fast as he could, but still her personality wouldn't allow her to back down from a challenge. Besides, now that she could feel demon chakra, she wouln't have to stay behind Naruto until the last second.

Locating Shadow's chakra signature, she dashed off into the Forest, leaving Naruto in the dust for a second, before he noticed what she had done and ran after her. It didn't take long for him to catch up, but it was already too late, she had already reached the spot where Shadow's chakra was.

Naruto arrived at the spot, faking an annoyed look on his face, watching as Sakura stuck her hand out, with her fingers in a 'V' for victory sign. "You cheated." he said, to which she only stuck her tongue out at him. He almost felt like capturing her tongue with his mouth but settled for looking at the argument taking place in the clearing in front of them.

There were six people in the clearing; four of which appeared to be shinobi, if the Hitai-ate on their foreheads were any indication, while the other two were normal civilians. There was also a dog that was large enough to reach the waist of the ninja next to it. Besides the people standing in the clearing, there were two others that were tied to a tree, but apparently they were dead, if the smell was any indication.

"You can't just abandon us after bringing us this far!" yelled one of the civilians. He looked like he was in his late twenties. He wore a dark blue shirt with a pair of black pants, and a fairly large backpack on his back.

Naruto and Shadow noticed that the scent seemed to come from him, and looked at each other, with Naruto signaling to be ready to interfere. It didn't seem that the shinobi had noticed yet. Naruto also noticed, while looking at Shadow, that Sakura had a shocked expression on her face.

"We wouldn't have to leave you if you hadn't lied on the mission application." said a feminine voice, bringing Naruto's attention back to the group in front of them. The voice belonged to a woman with black hair and red eyes. She wore a red shirt with only a sleeve on the right arm, somewhat loose wrapping over her shirt and up to above her knees. Her hair was wavy and waist-length. "You requested protection from bandits, robbers, and dangerous wildlife. You didn't mention that there were enemy shinobi after you." she stated, glaring at the men that put her student's lives in danger.

"Because we new if we did, you'd charge us more for the mission and we didn't have enough money for better protection." said the other civilian, an old man—maybe in his mid forties—who reeked of sake. He wore a brown shirt with a white obi and a pair of tan pants, and also carried a backpack about the same size as his companions. He had a towel around his neck, and a bottle of sake in one hand. "Besides, they told us we'd get a team of Chuunin, not a bunch of snot nosed brats and a woman!" he yelled, pointing at them with his free hand.

"Hey!" yelled the boy next to the dog, glaring daggers at the old man. "You aren't making a good argument for why we shouldn't leave, you know!" he shouted, the dog next to him barking in agreement. "And we _are_ chuunin!" He wore a dark gray hooded jacket with a pair of black pants. His hair was brown, wild and untamed, and his eyes had a feral look to them. He also had two red fangs on his face, one on each cheek. He gave off such a strong scent of dog that Naruto almost threw up.

"From what I saw in that fight, I think it would be fine if just the creepy silent kid and your sensei stayed." said the old man, turning his head to the side, making the lavender haired girl look down and the dog boy narrow his eyes, looking like he was about to attack.

"Tazuna-san!" yelled the younger man next to him, although he slightly agreed. He then turned back to the ninja, when the old man didn't respond. "Please, don't listen to him. And, please, at least escort us to the ocean." he pleaded. The dog boy just crossed his arms across his chest and turned around.

"I don't see why we should." he said stubbornly, with the white dog also turning around and sitting down.

"Please, everyone back home is counting on us to finish that bridge. If we can finish it, Gato won't be able to control us anymore. We'll be able to set up trade with the mainland without using his ports." the man said, a begging look in his eyes, which went unnoticed by the teen with his back to him. The older man just looked down, a mix of emotions on his face.

"Even if you say that," the red eyed woman began, "the fact of the matter is that we aren't well equipped for this mission. We expected to only run into bandits, at worst. We didn't expect Ninja with poisoned weapons." she said, watching her lavender-haired student clutch the cut on her left shoulder, and the dog loving boy looked at his arms, which had holes along the length of the forearms (Thank god Shino had been carrying those antidotes). "And those were chuunin," she motioned over to the dead bodies, "They'll send Jonin next time. And if they do, that'll make this mission a B-rank, meaning you'd need a team of Jonin."

"But we already told you we can't afford a higher ranked mission—"

"—Did you ever think of trying to set up a deal with the village, to see if you couldn't pay off the mission in separate payments!" the woman shouted. Her students looked at her, obviously surprised that she was yelling.

"Ano, Kurenai-sensei," the lavender haired girl began, her voice soft, fidgeting with her fingers, "w-why don't we just finish the mission?" she asked, shyly, looking down at the end. She had lavender hair the reached to just past her shoulders, and a pair of gentle pale-lavender eyes. She wore a hooded white and gray jacket, which looked a little too big for her, and loose purple pants. Even with the loose fitting clothing, her curves were still clearly visible.

"Hinata..." Kurenai trailed off. Even though she almost died because the clients hadn't informed them of the ninja after them, her student still wanted to finish the escort mission. She sighed, closing her eyes. "I don't think we could handle it if they sent Jonin... at least, not after the injuries you and Kiba sustained." she said.

"But—" Hinata was interrupted by her last teammates stoic voice.

"Kurenai-sensei's right, Hinata." he said, putting a hand on said girl's uninjured shoulder. "I think it would be best if we returned," he turned towards the two clients, "and if you wish, you can try setting up a deal like Kurenai-sensei mentioned." he said, watching Hinata's face face slightly.

"W-What do you think, Kiba-kun?" she asked, hearing the boy sigh.

"Honestly, I think we should return, too. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, my arms are kinda useless right now, and that means I'd be almost as helpless as one of those two if we were attacked." he said, glaring at the men across from them. Hinata's face fell even more.

"Oh."

"It decided, then." Kurenai said. "We're heading back; whether you two come with us is up to you." she said as she began to lead the team away.

"Wait, please, just take us to the ocean!" the young man yelled at the retreating ninja, who ignored his calls. He then felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Give it up, Takashi." said Tazuna. "Let's just go with them. Maybe we can set up a deal."

"No, Not after coming this far." Takashi snapped at him. "Come back here!" he yelled, before clutching at his stomach and falling to the ground.

"Takashi!" Yelled Tazuna, kneeling beside him. "Help, somethings wrong." he shouted, making the ninja stop and turn around. Tazuna thanked god they stopped but then raised an eyebrow when he noticed they were looking at him like as if he was a hideous creature. Turning back to Takashi, he saw the young man's spine rising out of his body, before a long slimy creature ripped out through the back, his companion's blood splattering everywhere.

Suddenly it sprang towards the group of ninja. **"You just couldn't make my job easy, could you!?"** it yelled, heading towards Kurenai. Though, before it could get far, it was pinned to the ground by numerous kunai coming from the foliage to the right. Quickly, all the ninja were on guard, pulling out kunai of their own and falling into defensive stances.

"Who's there?" Kiba said, expecting the enemy Jonin Kurenai had said would come. He gripped his kunai as tight as he could with his injured arms as the bushes shook and a yellow haired boy walked out, hands in the air and a grin on his face.

"Uh, hey." said Naruto, laughing sheepishly. "Sorry if I scared you guys, I just thought I'd help." he said, scratching the back of his head, his fox ears concealed by a demonic genjutsu. He then heard the bushes rustle again and before he could turn around, he was face first on the ground, a bump on his head.

"Idiot, warn me next time before you do something like that." she yelled, angry that he had accidentally pushed her to the side, rather roughly, when he threw the kunai.

"S-Sakura-san?" Hinata's questioning voice came, making Sakura freeze. She had forgotten about the fact that she knew the ninja in front of her, and that they would wonder what she was doing so far away from the village, without her headband. With her heart racing in distress, she turned towards her former fellow ninja.

"O-Oh, hey, guys." she said, trying to keep calm. Maybe they didn't know about her leaving the village. After all, it took about three days to travel from Tanzaku to Konoha, and about two days from Tanzaku to where they were if they ran; which she and Naruto hadn't been doing, since they had been getting to know each other, and that would have been hard to do if the wind was whipping past their ears.

"Sakura, what are _you_ doing here?" Kiba asked, Akamaru tilting it's head to the side as it stared at her.

Sakura groaned on the inside. Kiba was an annoying guy who used to try to hit on her, and several other girls before he started focusing his sights on Hinata. And even though it's been around a year since he stopped hitting on others, she still hadn't forgiven him for telling everyone that he'd made out with most of the girls he had hit on, her included. She had cornered him afterwards and made him admit the truth, and she hadn't been the only one to do so.

"Uh—"

"We were passing by when we heard some shouting." Naruto said, answering for Sakura as he figured she wasn't as good at coming up with excuses as he was. "And I, being the nosy person I am, dragged Sakura-chan over and made her eavesdrop with me." He was rubbing the back of his neck as he did this, laughing nervously.

"And who the hell are you?" Kiba barked, voicing the question on his teams mind. It was obvious they were suspicious of the unknown blond standing next to their pink haired comrade.

"I'm Naruto; Naruto Uzumaki." answered the blond. "And you guys are?" he asked back.

"They're from my village, Naruto." Sakura explained, making everyone turn back to her. "That Kiba, Akamaru, Hinata, Shino and their sensei, Kurenai." she said, pointing at everyone as she said their names. "Now that you found out what that yelling was, let's go, Naruto." Sakura ordered, pulling Naruto back into the forest.

"What village are you from, Naruto?" they suddenly heard Kurenai ask, as they were halfway out of the clearing. That made Sakura's eyes widen. She hadn't expected Kurenai to ask that, and she was hesitant on forming an answer for her boyfriend, as she liked to think of him.

Then she remembered that Naruto and Shadow said they've impersonated ninja before and done missions. Meaning they must have hitai-ate. "Naruto, show them your hitai-ate." she whispered, causing him to look at her.

"My what?" he asked, a confused expression on his face.

"Your headband, stupid." Sakura nearly shouted. She'd rather not have her friends try to capture her, especially since it seemed that they didn't know she was now technically a missing Nin.

"Oh. Alright." Naruto dug into his backpack and pulled out a headband, which Sakura recognized to be from Suna, which was thankfully on good terms with Konoha. "Here." he said, holding it out for the Konoha Nin to observe. It was indeed a Suna hitai-ate, complete with a standard pale blue cloth.

"Okay." Kurenai seemed to accept what she was seeing. "So what rank are you?" she asked, still wary of Naruto.

"He's a Jonin." Sakura, answered for him, figuring he didn't know about ranks. "And he's here because he was invited to meet my parents in Shigai." Sakura lied, answering the question she knew Kurenai would ask next. "They're thinking of arranging a marriage between our families, for us." Sakura blushed as she said this, though she failed to see the quick flash of melancholy that flashed in Naruto's eyes.

_**'You're pretty much already married to him, anyways.' **_Inner Sakura commented inside Sakura's head. '**_And nice work on the Shigai part.' _**she added. It was a town they had passed not forty minutes ago, and her family was also known to go there. Her clan was in the upper middle class, almost borderline rich. Sakura was brought back to reality as Kurenai spoke again.

"Well, I guess I have no other questions." she said, closing her eyes. When she reopened them, she had a soft smile on her face. "I wish you two the best of luck, though." she said. "You look like a cute couple."

Sakura smiled and thanked the older woman. It was quiet as everyone seemed happy for them, until Naruto had to break the silence. "Is she going through that time of month, or something?" he asked, pointing at Kurenai. Instantly, he was bopped on top the head by Sakura. "What was that for, Sakura-chan?" he yelled, rubbing the lump on his head.

"Baka, what's wrong with you!?" she yelled, glaring at him for his rude remark. "You don't ask that sort of question! What happened to being polite to women!?" Naruto just looked down, mumbling something incoherent. "What was that?"

"I was just wondering why she was really mean one minute, and then she was being nice." he said, turning behind them. "Or did you forget she was gonna leave this old man unless he went back to pay for a higher ranked mission?" he asked, staring at the old man who still didn't seem to believe what had just happened to his companion. "I mean, if I have to choose between helping to a woman that can stick up for herself, or sticking up for an old man who can't, I'll have to side with the old man."

Sakura just stared at Naruto, as he walked over to Tazuna. "Naruto, what are you—" she was cut as Kurenai decided she wasn't going to get talked to like that by some young arrogant punk.

"He lied to us. He withheld information that almost cost my students their lives. It was supposed to be a C-rank mission, which is why they gave it to my team; a team of chuunin." she paused, watching as Naruto tried to snap Tazuna out of his stupor. "But it turned out to be a B-rank mission; for a team of us Jonin, only." she said, referring to the fact that Sakura had said Naruto was a Jonin as well.

Naruto turned to face her as he pulled Tazuna up onto his feet. "I get what you're saying, now." he said. Kurenai was about to say she was glad he understood, when he added, "You're saying that when the going gets tough, you give up and go running home with your tails between your legs. You can't even take him to the end of this forest after his friend was brutally killed by a demon that was hiding inside him."

"Didn't you hear what that demon said? He obviously had a plan!" Kurenai shouted. "That could make this mission an A-rank. That means it's a mission to be handled by only Jonin, or maybe even a team of ANBU. Lying about a B-rank is one thing, but an A-ran—"

"Stop trying to use the ranks to hide the real reason!" Naruto cut her off, getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. "It seems to me you don't think your team is ready to handle these tougher missions." Naruto said, making said team look at their teacher.

"That true Kurenai-sensei?" Kiba asked. When he didn't receive a response, he clenched his fists tightly."So you do think we're weak..."

"I never said that!" Kurenai yelled, but it was Shino who spoke afterwards.

"But you think that." he said, making his teacher look down and his teammates look at him in surprise. Shino always agreed with Kurenai, whether it be on what missions they should except or how much training they needed. It was a shock that he was siding against her.

"It's just that..." she sighed, "after all these years, I think of you kids as family, and I want to keep you all out of harms way." She looked up when a soft hand grabbed her shoulder, and stared into the pale eyes of her only female student.

"We understand, Kurenai-sensei, but if you don't let us get stronger, we won't be able to take care of ourselves if your not on a mission with us." said Hinata, her voice reassuring. Kurenai sighed, seeing the confident faces of her students.

"You guys want to continue this mission, then?" They all nodded, but then she looked at Kiba and Hinata. "And what about your wounds?" she asked, only to be answered by Naruto.

"I have something that can take care of that." he said, fishing around his backpack for a few seconds before pulling out a small container. "Rub this on your wounds, it'll heal 'em almost instantly." he bragged, tossing it to Kiba, who caught it clumsily.

Sakura stared at the container wondering where she'd seen it before. Then she remembered. "Isn't that the ointment you used on me?" she asked Naruto, who only nodded as he stepped away from the old man when he had finally calmed down. She turned back to see Kiba and Hinata blushing as they rubbed the cream on their wounds, with Kiba facing away from Hinata. Hinata had to pull her jacket and shirt down her shoulder, almost exposing her breast.

_'At least he was smart enough to look away.'_ Sakura thought before heading towards Naruto. "they're gonna be leaving soon," she said, trying to keep her gaze away from the open body to the left, and the kunai ridden demon slightly to the right of it, "What are we gonna do?" she asked. Naruto looked at her with a grin on his face, meaning he was gonna ask something she would not approve of.

"Um, I was thinking we could go with them." he said, and before she could respond, he grabbed her hands and spoke again. "Hear me out, first." when she didn't do anything but look at him expectantly, he continued. "It's an A-rank mission, and they're just chuunin." he said, making her raise an eyebrow.

"You know the different shinobi ranks?" she asked. Naruto just smiled.

"Sakura-chan, I'm a demon, who poses as a ninja every now and then. I had to learn about them so I knew which to pose as so people would hire me." he explained, voice low so the Konoha ninja wouldn't hear. "Plus, I've fought against some ninja, as both a demon and a ninja, I know the difference in their power levels. The higher the mission rank, the stronger the enemy." Sakura sweat dropped at his simple reasoning.

"Really? I never noticed." she said sarcastically. Naruto just pouted, feigning annoyance.

"Laugh all you want," he said, still pouting, "but I think that lady was right. There might also be demons, like that one who can hide inside people, and if they can't even notice Shadow who's sleeping in the bushes, they'll need help against those." he finished.

Sakura blinked when he mentioned Shadow. "You mean that's why he didn't come out? He fell asleep?" she asked, an unbelieving tone in her voice as she turned towards the bushes where Shadow was. "Don't tell me he fell asleep before the demon attacked." she said, hands on her hips. Then she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist from behind and a head nuzzle into her neck.

"I don't think so, but even if he did, I don't blame him. It was boring waiting for it to come out." Naruto spoke against her skin, making Sakura relax and melt into his embrace. The couple was enjoying their time together when Kiba broke the silence.

"Hey, you two better not go all rabbit pair on us." he said, making Sakura glare at him for being an interfering idiot and Naruto smile. "Anyways, just wanted to say we're leaving, and thanks for the cream." he said, throwing the container back at Naruto.

"Wait up." Naruto said as he caught his mother's medicine. Kiba turned back towards them, a questioning look on his face. "We're coming with you guys." he said, making Kiba raise an eyebrow. "I think if I go, your sensei might be less worried. Having two Jonin is better than one, isn't it?" he asked. Kiba just smiled and nodded.

"I guess. I go tell the rest, then." he said, running off towards his team, who had walked farther down the clearing with Tazuna. Then he stopped and turned around, looking from side to side frantically. "Hey, where's Akamaru?" he asked aloud, making everyone scan the clearing.

"He was just here." Hinata said, motioning beside her. "Maybe he went to the bath—"

"What the—Get the fuck away from me, you mangy mutt!" Shadow's gruff voice came from in the forest, before he came running into the clearing, closely followed by Akamaru. Shadow growled at the white dog as he came to a stop. Akamaru growled back, not showing any sign of backing down.

"Another demon?" Tazuna asked, making the Konoha shinobi raise their weapons.

"Shadow? What're you doin'?" Naruto asked, making the group look at him, confused. Shadow didn't even take his eyes off the white dog in front of him to answer Naruto.

"This fucking dog almost pissed on me!" he yelled, getting angrier when Naruto started laughing. It didn't help that even Sakura was snickering, obviously amused that the demon who claimed to be stronger than Naruto was almost bested by a common dog.

"Well, if you're mad now, this will get you even madder." Naruto said, gaining Shadow's curiosity. "We're going with these guys, meaning you have to hang out with Akamaru for a while." Naruto grinned while Shadow thought about how he might have repaid Naruto enough for saving his life all those years ago.

"I hate you, you know that?" Shadow said, only getting a chuckle from the blond 'Jonin.' turning back to Akamaru, he muttered a quick, "You saved yourself this time," before turning away and walking towards Naruto, not noticing the questioning looks the Konoha shinobi were sending them.

However, Naruto did. "Don't worry, Shadow's a good demon. I found him when he was a little kit, and he's been following me ever since." he reassured them jokingly, making them relax slightly. There have been demons captured and trained to fight against other demons. When they put away their weapons, Naruto moved towards them. "Well, we should get going, shouldn't we?" he asked, rhetorically, with everyone nodding and turning to leave, until Kurenai stops.

"Sakura, I don't think you should come with us." she said, making said girl stop, alongside Naruto. "If Naruto wants to come, he can, seeing as he's a Jonin from an ally village who is offering his assistance. But you're a chuunin, and this is a possible A-rank mission. We are only continuing what was supposed to be a C-rank mission, but you aren't part of our squad." she explained, making Sakura frown.

"But I think I should keep an eye on my _fiancé." _Sakura said, hoping it would be a good enough reason. "Besides, Kakashi-sensei said that 'those who abandon the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash.' I would feel horrible if any of you get hurt, knowing I could have helped if I had have gone." she reasoned, sounding more convincing than her first excuse. When Kurenai sighed, Sakura smiled.

"Fine. We might need some extra help, if there are demons and enemy ninja waiting for us." she admitted. "Is that okay with you, Mr. Tazuna?" Kurenai asked the client, who only nodded.

"As long as they're going to protect me, I have no objections." he said, tugging on the straps of his backpack. With that, the group began to walk away, leaving the two corpses behind.

After a while of walking, with Naruto arguing with Shadow and the rest of the group laughing at the fox's ability to make snappy comebacks in a split second, Kiba decided to ask a question he had been wondering about.

"Hey, Shadow," when the fox turned towards him, he continued, "you're a fox demon, right?" he asked.

"No, I'm a fish demon." Shadow responded sarcastically, making Kiba's face redden slightly in embarrassment of his question. "Why? Shadow question after the teen returned to his normal color.

"I was just wondering... are you related to the demon that attacked our village sixteen years ago? The Kyuubi?" none of the humans noticed that Naruto's chakra flared dangerously high at the mention of the name, as they weren't trained to feel a demon's chakra, though they did feel the hair on the back of their necks rise.

Shadow, however, did and stiffen for a second at the raw amount, before answering the question. "I don't know, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention the name of that disgrace." he said, making the group, including Sakura, look at him. "Just because I fight against my kind, doesn't mean I don't have pride in my race. And that idiot brought shame on fox demons by starting a fight and losing." Shadow explained, with Naruto mentally agreeing, though with a few other thoughts.

The rest of the trip went on similar to how it started until they reached the shore, and purchased a larger bought than they had originally thought they'd need, which Naruto paid for entirely. As they sailed over the water, Naruto thought he heard a disruption in the water. Moving to the edge of the wooden boat, he waited until whatever it was passes under and reached out to grab it, only to get a mild shock, surprising everyone.

"Damn!" he yelled, letting go of whatever it was that he grabbed. "I don't know what it is, but there's something under us." he said, making everyone go on alert.

"Hinata." Kurenai signaled for the girl to use her Kekkei Genkai. The girl merely nodded before closing her eyes and focusing her chakra to her eyes.

"Byakugan!" she said when she opened her eyes, which were now surrounded by veins that were sticking out from her face. "It's a pair of demons, like the one from the forest." she said.

"So that's why it wanted to get you guys to the ocean, it was an eel demon and knew it would be stronger near water. And it must have had it's friends waiting to ambush you." Naruto guessed, his eyebrows furrowing when he heard a high pitched laughter.

"**So, you humans aren't as stupid as you look."** said one of the demons, though it never came out of the water.

"**No matter, as long as they're on water, they won't be able to beat us, even if they figured out our plan."** said another, lower pitched voice. **"But where's that idiot that was supposed to bring you here?"**

"I killed him." Naruto said, trying to rile the demons up in an attempt to make them show themselves. "And If you guys are as weak as him, this battle won't take long." he smirked when he heard Hinata gasp.

"Something big is coming up. I think there was a larger demon lower in the sea." she muttered, making her teammates tense further. They knew that as long as they were on water, the eel demon were right about being at an advantage.

"Calm down and just hold onto the boat." Naruto said. Although he hadn't expected this, his plan would still work.

Quickly, a head as large as a boulder came out, revealing a gray demon with spikes on the bottom of it's chin, and the sides of it's jaw. It also had a pretty intimidating set of teeth sticking out from the bottom of it's mouth, and two big yellow eyes.

"Bingo." Naruto whispered before jumping up into the air, towards it. _' A kaze Onijutsu should to the trick.'_ he thought, forming hand signs, making sure to not let the Konoha shinobi notice he used hand signs different from the ones they used.

"**I'll show you we—" **It was cut off as Naruto rammed his fist on top of it's skull. Normally this would be nothing, but Naruto's fist was covered in a swirling funnel of air, making it drill through the demon's skin, and break past it's skull until it reached it's brain, which was then put through a blender effect by the swirling wind. There wasn't even enough time for it to scream before it was dead.

Pulling his arm out of the sinking demon's head, Naruto grimaced at the blood on it. He jumped back to the boat, making it rock a bit when he landed before he dunked his arm into the water, trying to get the blood off him. He was oblivious to the stares everyone was giving him because of his sheer brutality. Even Sakura, who knew he had a technique like that, was looking at him.

_'He said it was a nasty jutsu, but I didn't expect it to be that brutal.'_ she thought, watching the water turn red and chunks of what she assumed were the demon's brain float on the surface._ 'Plus he used it without hesitation, and with so much ease. That had to be a B-class demon... what class is Naruto?' _Sakura was brought out of her thoughts when Kiba spoke up.

"That was awesome!" he yelled, a knew respect for the young blond 'Jonin.' "Naruto, you have to teach me that technique." he said, looking at Naruto with admiring eyes.

Naruto smiled, still stying to remove the pieces of brain from his arm (he hated using that jutsu because of the mess it made but it was his best way of dealing with large demons.). "Sorry, village secret." he repeated what the perverted toad hermit had told him when he had asked him to teach him to summon frogs. When he figured he had cleaned his arm enough, he was going to bring it out until he felt something pass under his arm.

It wasn't as large as the first demon he grabbed, so he guessed it was the other demon. Bracing himself, he grabbed it and yanked it out of the water. It gave a small shock but froze when it saw his face. He smirked when it did, deciding he wanted answers.

"Alright, you slimy little living battery, I want answers." when it didn't try to get away, he asked his first question. "Why are you after this old man?"

"**A human sent us, said he'd spare our lives if we managed to kill the old man for him. Said he didn't trust his own men to be able to finish the job." **it said, obviously cooperating out of fear of Naruto.

"Who sent you?" Kurenai asked, beating Naruto, who pouting, whispering, 'I was gonna ask that...'

"**I don't know who he was. He attacked our pack while we were hunting and killed every member except us four."** it explained, obviously mad at the fact it's pack was killed by one human.

"What did he look like?" Shino asked, before Naruto could, making him pout again and mutter, 'I was gonna ask that too...' The only sympathy he got was from Sakura however, and it was mixed with amusement.

"**He had a giant sword, and his face was covered by bandages. He had eyes that made leader's look like a human baby, and he was really tall."** it answered, voice becoming strained due to being out of the water and Naruto's grip on it's neck.

Naruto, when no one else asked a question, was about to ask his when he was beat to it by none other than Shadow. "Anything else?" he asked, hearing Naruto mumble a sting a curses.

"**There was a demon with him, who could make ice and manipulate it."** it's voice was getting quite raspy by that point. And Naruto's grip had become tighter each time someone 'took' his question.

"What did that demon look like?" Kiba asked, pushing Naruto over the edge since he was about to ask that same question. A semi-loud snap was head, and the demon's eyes became dull and lifeless.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, when she noticed what he had done. Naruto blinked before letting go of the now lifeless demon.

"Ah, shit, that was an accident!" he yelled, waving his hands in front of his face as the whole group shot him a glare. "Anyways," he began when they, mainly Sakura, didn't do anything, "at least we know that there's a big guy with a sword and an ice demon after us. I mean, how much more do we need to know?" he asked laughing sheepishly hoping they agreed.

He was answered when a hand grabbed his fox ear through the henge—although to the Konha nin it looked like she just had a fist full of spiky yellow hair. "And what if the demon comes after us next? How will we know if we don't know what it looks like!" Sakura said, beginning in a low voice only to end up yelling.

"Ah, Come on Sakura-chan, how hard will it be to tell apart a demon from an animal or a person?" Naruto asked, obviously forgetting he himself looked remarkably like a human for a demon. His comment had it's desired effect, however, when his mate left go of his now throbbing ear. "Let's get going now." he said when his ear stopped hurting so much.

"We can't." responded Tazuna. "Those demon fried the engine." he said, trying to turn on the small engine in the back of the boat.

"You mean we're stuck here!?" Naruto shouted, getting a smack from Sakura for screaming in her ear.

"Don't worry," he began, reaching under the middle seats, "We'll just use these." he said, holding up a long box to the shinobi.

"You gotta be kidding me." Naruto said, suddenly wishing he didn't have opposable thumbs like Shadow. Said demon fox was smiling at the turn of events.

* * *

-- Somewhere in the Land of Waves--

A figure sat hunched over in a stone chair, it's fingers tapping on the hilt in it's hand. It didn't seem too happy with the news it was hearing from the head protruding from the small circular pool of water in the middle of the room.

"So," it's voice was low and gruff, slightly muffled by the bandages covering it's mouth, "You mean a B-class demon and two C-class demons were defeated by one kid?" the head nodded it's head shakily, obviously wishing it had stayed back where it's comrades had been killed. Maybe he would have been killed painlessly by the human.

"I see..." it's hand hand tightened around the hilt of the sword and it was about to swing it across and decapitate the figure in the water but was stopped by a soft hand grabbing hold of it's wrist. Looking up, it stared at a feminine looking human, whose face was really close to it's own, with long black hair and a gentle smile on her face.

"Don't. It's not even worth your energy, Zabuza-sama." she said, her voice soothing and gentle. Zabuza sighed, knowing what it meant, before shaking his wrist free.

"Alright, but back away. I don't go that way, Haku." he said, making the now revealed to be boy back away slightly. The demon in the pool voiced it's gratitude before leaving through the exit under the pool, which lead to the ocean.

However, before it reached the bottom, it was frozen in the pool, the ice stopping at the bottom. The demon was now frozen in the ice, but still very much alive. Unable to move even it's eyelids, it was forced to wait for death to come and take it away.

Up in the room, Zabuza looked at Haku, who had his hand on the surface of the ice. "The way you kill is amusing but you have to stop taking my kills." Zabuza commented, making Haku smile gently again.

"I'm sorry, you can have the next one." he said, his voice still soft but with a hint of malicious kindness in it. Hearing footsteps to their left, both turning to see their client walk into the room.

"Well," said a small man, with curly light brown hair, "first your subordinates didn't manage to finish him off, and now you stinking demons fail too. You're making me reconsider how much I'm gonna pay you." he said, a smile tugging on the sides of his mouth. He didn't even see Zabuza move until the giant sword was in front of his face, the tip mere inches away from digging into his forehead.

"Shut up, Gato. I'm going this time. So you better not pay me even a penny less than what you're supposed to." he said, standing up and tilting his neck to the side, cracking it. He then brought his sword up and propped it against his shoulder. "Let's go, Haku." he ordered, walking out through the other hallway in the room, followed by the feminine looking boy.

"Who do you think it was that killed those demon?" Haku asked, walking behind Zabuza. Zabuza kept walking until they reached the outside, a misty forest, before answering.

"I don't know, but whoever he is, he's a dean man."

* * *

--Another part of the Land of Waves--

Oujou was currently glaring a Ryuk, who was eating the boar he had just killed. How it was possible to eat an entire boar in the two minutes it took him to get a few branches to start a fire, he didn't know. But Oujou wanted revenge.

"Hey!" he yelled. The demon turned a single eye his direction, the other still gazing at the blood dripping from the bones of the mostly eaten animal. "That better be a different boar from the one I killed." he said, only to receive a smirk from the silver haired fox demon.

"Did you kill this?" he asked, knowing the answer. "I thought it just decided to commit suicide and slit it's own throat." he joked. Oujou was not amused. It a flash, Oujou was drawing his sword from his back, but before he could fully bring it out, Ryuk's hand had already extended outwards and came down on his head, making the boy sink into the ground like a nail hit by a hammer.

He struggled briefly before realizing it was futile. "Get me the fuck out of here!" he yelled, only to be ignored. "Don't ignore me, you fucking—uh—whatever you are!" still no response. "Don't you know who I am? I'm—"

"The second prince of the Demon Realm, Oujou Kitsune, younger brother of the new Kyuubi no Yoko, otherwise known as the first prince of the Demon Realm.." Ryuk finished for him. "I was your father's biggest rival, you think I don't know who you are? Especially with how much you take after him compared to your brother."

Oujou was at a loss for words. This skinny old demon was his dad's biggest rival? He couldn't—wouldn't believe it. His father was powerful beyond compare, which is why he wasn't all that worried that Kyuubi was searching for ways of making himself strong enough to kill him (Though he did make a deal with his brother to allow him to kill his mother without interference in exchange for not revealing his plans). For some reason, Kyuubi hated their father but was fond of their mother, while it was the exact opposite with Oujou.

"I don't believe you." Oujou said, making Ryuk smirk.

"Believe it, kid. Why do you think your brother busted me out of that prison? He wants to know where my swords are. With just our knowledge and strength, me and your dad were matched, but when it came to weapons, my swords would give me a victory against him and his elemental swords every once in a while." Ryuk glanced at the sword Oujou was gripping tighter. "I see he has begun sharing them with his kids, eh? Does that mean he's getting old and too rusty to use them all anymore—"

"Shut up! My father could kill you and any other demon stupid enough to think they could take him on with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed!" Oujou yelled, glaring at Ryuk as tears of anger were threatening to fall down his face.

Yellow eyes stared back at the boy buried neck deep in front of him. "You... You idolize your dad, don't you?" he asked, wonder about how the conversation he had had with Kyuubi in the cave would end up affecting this young kitsune.

--Flashback --

_Ryuk stared at the man in front of him. It had been a few years, but he could still see the red head's mother whenever he looked at those detached eyes. _'How that dummy ever fell for her, I'll never know' _he thought to himself. _

"_Well, since you are Ryuk, you must know why I am here, don't you?" Kyuubi asked, studying the demon. It was in it's fox form, it's yellow eyes were slightly hazy, an obvious indication of how long it had been in the dark. It was also skinny, but not to the point where it looked like it was starving. And it's silver fur was dirty, almost making it look like he was a black haired fox with sliver spots here and there._

_Ryuk sighed. "Someone tell you it was me that dropped you on your head when you were little?" he tried, making the red haired demon blink in surprise._

"_What?"_

"_What?"_

_Kyuubi stared coldly at the silver haired fox, not in the mood for games. "Shiro Kinsei and Kuro Kinsei; were are they?" Kyuubi demanded, making Ryuk raise an eyebrow. "And show me your true face, I hate talking to demons in their second form, makes my neck hurt." he said, referring to the fact that he had to look down._

_Ryuk rolled his eyes before being covered in a soft glow as he stood on his hind legs and his body began to change form, making him look almost human. _'Such is the curse for being SS-class.' _ he thought, looking at his humanoid hands. Looking back at the young fox demon, he was surprised to see he had to look down. "Whoa, I though you were taller..." when Kyuubi didn't react, he sighed and put his hands to his chin. "Let's see, the Kinsei blades..._

"_Last I remember, they were in the middle of Wave country..." he thought out loud._

"_It's now the Land of Waves. It seems they lost a war and lost land on the mainland, only keeping the islands." Kyuubi mentioned, making Ryuk's eyebrow rise in surprise. _

"_Wow, then I guess they're in whatever country it is now, unless someone moved them. In that case, I don't know where they are." Ryuk replied. "Well, thanks for freeing me, I'm of—" _

"_Don't play dumb with me, I know you infused some of your Chakra into them, in case a situation such as this one should occur. I know you can track them down." Ryuk flinched, hoping he could just leave and get something to eat before going to have some fun with human women. He always liked them better than those stuck up bitches that were the female fox demons. They were like fucking a rock. He would know, there was nothing else to screw in that cave._

"_So—what?—you gonna use me to find them?" he joked, only to laugh nervously when Kyuubi smirked. "Ah fuck." he sighed, looking down. Looking back up, he decided to voice an important question. "Why do you want them, anyways?"_

_Kyuubi stared him in the eyes, red looking at yellow, before looking away. "I want to take my father's throne, but I don't want to just win the contest for it. I want him dead when I take it." Kyuubi answered,his tone of voice deadly serious. _

"_Why? What did he ever do for you to hate him?" Ryuk asked, wondering if the red head was like this because of the drop. _'It wasn't even that high, though.'

"_Let's just say, he betrayed my mother's trust." Kyuubi said, thinking about the yellow haired mini version of his father he had disposed of years ago, along with the red head who had birthed the abomination. "And my mother suffered because of it."_

"_... So he cheated on her?" He asked, wondering what was so bad about that. As a male, he was allowed to have as many mates as he wanted, unless he allowed a female to mark him. "What's so bad about that?"_

"_It was with a human." Kyuubi explained, making Ryuk smile widely on the inside._

'Alright, buddy! You finally came over to the fun side!'_ he thought, celebrating and planning on giving his old friend a big congratulations. Though getting back to the matter at hand, he guessed he could help the demon who was given the title of new Kyuubi since birth. He doubted the swords would even let him use them anymore, anyways._

"_Alright, but you should know that they won't guarantee a victory. I only had a forty-five percent chance of winning each time." he said, admitting the little known fact. "But still it's better than anyone else ever had."_

"_That's more than enough." Kyuubi said, making Ryuk wonder how strong he was. Sure, in his current state, he was weaker, but he wondered if Kyuubi was stronger than he was at his prime. "Now, let's go, I have something I need to get from the Land of Waves, as well." he said walking out of the cave, Ryuk following lazily._

"_Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just let me get some water, my throat's killing me." he said, rubbing said body part. "So," Ryuk trailed of, "You're not mad, then?"_

"_About what?"_

"_Nothing. About nothing." Ryuk answered, knowing full well that he was going to have fun messing around with the young fox demon._

-- End Flashback --

Ryuk sighed as he watched the small demon in front of him continue to struggle in an attempt to free himself. "I always wondered what the repercussions of dropping the kit on his head would be." Ryuk thought, making Oujou stop.

"Dropping who?" he asked, wondering if he was talking about him.

"You think your brother would be different if I hadn't dropped him?" Ryuk asked Oujou, who burst out laughing.

"You did what?" he breathed out, after a while. "Man, I wish I could've seen that1 The great 'Kyuubi-sama' dropped on the floor, crying!" he said, trying to calm himself down.

"I wish I could've, too. I ran away so fast afterwards, I didn't even notice when I got here in the Human Realm." Ryuk said, making Oujou laugh even harder.

"Stop ma-making me laugh. I-I can't bre-eathe." he pleaded. Ryuk only smiled, glad to see that at least one of his friend's kits was normal.

* * *

-- Back with Naruto and the gang --

Naruto was hating the fact he hand thumbs. And the fact that there were only six paddles, meaning Tazuna spared himself from paddle work. Currently, Naruto, Kiba and Shino were rowing the boat from the left side, and Sakura, Hinata and Kurenai were rowing on the right side. Shadow, Akamaru and Tazuna were on the back part, sitting and enjoying their relaxation time.

When Shadow noticed that Naruto was slowing down, he jumped up onto the edge of the boat and smacked his tail, quite loudly, against the engine. "Hey, quit slaking off!" He shouted, another smack following his command. "Come on," he started, "row, row, row, row, row!" he chanted, each word followed by a smack against the engine.

"Shadow, shut up before I throw you off the boat." Naruto said, turning to look at the black fox. Said fox only begun to shout row faster and louder, with harder smacks against the engine.

"Row, row, row, row row, row row ro—"

He was interrupted when after a particularly hard smack, the engine sputtered, propelling the boat forward a few feet before stopping. Tazuna inspected the engine once again before frowning when he found it didn't work again. Then he looked around the boat, before noticing that it was Shadow who was missing.

"Hey, Naruto, your little friend fell off." he said, making Naruto look down in fear, about to reach into his pants to check for himself when Sakura smacked him upside the head..

"Not that one, you idiot!" she shouted, blushing slightly at his stupidity. "He means Shadow." Naruto blinked before looking around and noting that the fox was indeed gone. Looking behind the boat, he saw him paddling behind them.

"Wait up, you guys!" he yelled. Naruto smirked.

"Quick, everyone, paddle faster! Maybe we can get away!" he shouted, jokingly, but was surprised when the boat actually _did_ start to move faster. Laughing when Shadow starting shouting curses at them, he thought, _'Well, at least we're almost at the shore, anyways.'_ And it was true, it would only be five minutes, at the most, before they reached shore.

As he laughed, he was unaware of the pair of cruel eyes looking at him from a pair of binoculars.

**To Be Continued...**

AN/ Well, there we go! Naruto Wandering demon chapter 6(?) is done! Now, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it took me a while to make it, I know, but hopefully this makes you all forgive me for the long wait... Um... I don't think I have anything I need to clarify, but if any of you have a question, just ask and I will do my best to answer... though it might be kinda hard if you leave an anonymous review, seeing as I have no way of contacting you... Um... well I guess that's it... Oh, last thing before I go. Please review.


	8. Chapter 7

AN/ Hey, people, what's up? Bet you all forgot who I am by now, huh? Shit, I did too. Anyways, I apologize for the extremely long absence and I'm glad people liked the last chapter. I hope I can make this chapter just as good—if not better—than the last. But, that's up for you, the reader, to decide. Now, some of you had questions to the last chapter, and, sadly, I'm gonna have to leave them unanswered. At least, for the time being. Can't really be called unexpected turn of events when they're... well, expected.

Disclaimer: ... Do I have to..?

"Speech"

_'Thought'_

_**'Inner Sakura'**_

"**(Unimportant) Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter Seven: Confrontation in the Land of Waves

A thick fog slowly began moving in, surrounding the shore as the boat full of ninja neared, forcing the bug user of the group to call his insects back, lest he wish for their wings to get wet by the floating water particles and render them unable to fly, cutting his list of attacks in half. After the last of the bugs retreated back into the hooded boy's person, with a freaked out Naruto and Sakura staring at him, they made contact with the shore. Naruto was disturbed by the fact that the boy seemed to have absorbed bugs—and so many of them—while Sakura just plain didn't like bugs. Never did and she doubted she ever would.

As the boat touched the shore everyone got out—Naruto deciding to be a gentleman and help Sakura out—before the guys flipped the boat over to make sure it wouldn't drift off. As soon as they were done flipping it over and piling enough sand and rocks to make sure it wouldn't get pulled into the water, Shadow reached the shore.

"Hey, Shadow, enjoy your swim?" Naruto asked, trying—and failing miserably—to keep his amusement out of his voice. The midnight demon fox said nothing, merely walked over to where he was before shaking his body in an attempt to rid his fur of the water clinging to it. "Ah, Shadow, you bastard!" Naruto yelled, shielding his face from the flying water with his hands.

"Stop fooling around, you two." Sakura ordered when Naruto was about to start chasing Shadow, masking the small growl that came from Naruto's throat. "Let's get going. The faster we get Tazuna-san to his house, the faster he can finish building the bridge and free his people from Gato." The fact that they still had to get away from the Konoha-nin before they found out the truth about Naruto and her was only part of why Sakura wanted to finish the mission.

With a pout Naruto huffed before glaring at a snickering Shadow—("Naruto-sama is so whipped.")—his look promising he'd get the small demon back. Shadow merely ignored the glare, continuing to laugh lightly as everyone grouped together near the path leading away from the shore.

"So, Tazuna-san, this is the land of waves, huh?" Kurenai asked as everyone took in their surroundings. While the fog was somewhat eerie, it helped conceal the fact that a lot of the trees were old and withered. "It looks nice," She began trying to be nice, "Like a forest after a light rain."

"Yeah, it kinda has a nice alluring effect going for it." Sakura added, catching onto what Kurenai was doing. In truth, however, the forest scared her slightly. It slightly reminded her—not to mention the other three chuunin—of the forest of death, the forest in Konoha where she had taken her chuunin exam. The memory of the worst, most agonizing, unbearably difficult test of her life sent a small shiver down her spine.

"It's kinda creepy lookin' if you ask me." Naruto said bluntly, getting a disapproving look from Sakura. "I mean... honestly, I think I've been in battle fields that are less depressing." Shadow nodded, agreeing with his master's comment, while Kiba snickered at how straightforward Naruto was.

Just as Sakura was about to scold Naruto for being so brutally honest, Tazuna's chuckling could be heard. "It seems like you're the only one that isn't afraid to say what's really on his mind." the bridge builder complimented the blond before his mood became slightly solemn. "But, yeah. This is what became of the Land of Waves ever since Gato took over." His shoulders began to shake slightly as he clenched his fists. "But if I can just complete this bridge, we should be able to break free from his grasp."

The group was silent for a while as the old man composed himself so that they may begin their journey into the unfamiliar island. However, they all stiffened when they heard what sounded like a large object cruising through the air towards them, at an alarming rate. Everyone but Shadow and Akamaru immediately dropped to the ground, with Tazuna being tackled by Kiba, just as the object in question cut through where they had just been standing and embedded itself into a nearby tree trunk. There was no doubt in any of their minds that if they had stayed standing they would have been split in two. Even if they had ducked a few seconds later they would have surely lost at least part of an arm.

Looking up, they saw a tall man standing on the hilt of a large cleaver, which must have been the object that flew over them. He wore gray pinstripe pants, white and gray camouflage arm and leg warmers, bandages around his neck and lower face and no shirt. His hair was black and looked spiky, and he wore a Mist hitai-ate tilted over his forehead with the metal plaque on the left side of his head.

"That was quite a moving story there, gramps." the attacker said as he turned his head to look at them over his right shoulder. "But I'm afraid you'll have to die, right here, right now." He finished by throwing about a dozen shuriken towards the bridge builder.

The old man crossed his arms in front of his face in a feeble attempt to block the incoming projectiles. However, instead of feeling pain, he heard the sound of metal hitting metal. Opening his eyes, he saw the black haired woman crouched in front of him with a kunai in hand.

"Former member of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū, Momoichi Zabuza; Demon of the Bloody Mist." Kurenai said, glaring at the tall enemy. Zabuza merely smirked under the bandages that covered his mouth.

"It's an honor to be known by the only person that has more stealth assassinations than I do; The Bloody Illusionist, Yuuhi Kurenai. No wonder the chuunin that I sent before couldn't get the job done." Zabuza retorted, crouching down to grab hold of his sword. He stopped, half crouch, when he felt something cold and sharp against his neck. His eyes widened when he realized that the Kurenai below him was a fake. _'When did she?'_

"Knowing of my skill, you still want to fight me?" Kurenai asked him from her position behind him, making sure her arm would be ready to slit his throat if he tried to move away. As soon as she had recognized who her opponent was, she had cast a genjutsu as quickly as she could and had jumped up behind him. "How about you just run away now? I'd rather my students not see my old ways."

"Don't fuck with me!" Zabuza yelled as he turned, only to have the kunai rip into his throat, making the precious liquid inside him spray out. However, instead of falling to the ground dead, Zabuza's body burst into water.

Only after Zabuza turned into water did Kurenai realize what had happened. She grunted as she was pushed into the tree behind her, a rough palm around her throat. "It's been five years since you stopped specializing in assassination missions. Your skill isn't even half of what it used to be."

Kurenai grit her teeth, knowing the Kiri ninja was right. In her prime she was able to cast genjutsu so strong that she would be able to walk into a building guarded by high jonin, assassinate the target and walk back out the front door without anyone noticing until she was long gone. However these past couple of years that she had spent training Hinata, and then Kiba and Shino, had made her too relaxed.

"Run away, kids! I'll take care of him and catch up! Just get Tazuna-san to safety!" Kurenai yelled, noticing Zabuza make hand signs with his other hand. "Hurry up and go!"

"Too late."

In a flash the group was surrounded by water clones, each making the same hand sign. "Ninpou;" the clones began in unison, "Kirigakure no Jutsu." Only seconds later, the field was covered in a mist so thick that none of them could see their own hands in front of them.

Kurenai's eyes widened as she saw the mist begin to roll in, knowing what Zabuza was planning. Said man smirked as the woman in his hand struggled desperately to get out of his grip. "What's wrong? Can't stand the fact that soon the only thing that'll be left of your students will be bloody pieces of meat?" the Kiri nin taunted.

"Dammit," a loud voice was heard from inside the mist, "that's the third time I've walked into a tree!"

"Shino! Hinata! Akamaru!"

"Naruto! Where are you?"

"Sakura-cha—oww! Stupid trees!"

_'That's it.'_ Kurenai thought. "Naruto, blow the mist away with your wind jutsu!" she yelled, remembering that the blond ninja had used a wind technique before.

"Oh. Good idea, Oba-san!" Naruto responded before whipping up a gust of wind strong enough to clear the mist, revealing that the Zabuza clones were each poised to deliver a lethal blow. Thankfully, the mist was removed just in time for everyone to dodge, allowing Shadow to use his speed to push the bridge builder out of the way.

"So, you're the blond ninja that defeated the demon eels I sent, huh?" Zabuza said from his new position on the ground, a few meters away from the group of young ninja, still holding Kurenai, except now in a choke hold. "What's your name kid?"

"Uzumaki Naruto. Sorry that I don't have a bloody nickname—hell, I don't even think I have a nickname." Naruto responded, throwing his backpack on the ground and getting into a fighting stance. "Now how about you stop picking on girls and take me on?"

Tossing Kurenai towards the water where another clone appeared, Zabuza smirked. "Suirou no Jutsu!" the clone yelled, trapping the Konoha Jonin in a sphere of water that was connected to its right hand, inside of which she appeared unable to move. "While in this water prison, she can't move. But don't worry, she can still breathe. I wouldn't want her to die without witnessing her students deaths."

"Kurenai-sensei!"Kiba yelled, sprinting towards the water clone only to be stopped by a black mass. Not a second passed after he stopped when another clone brought it's massive sword down on the ground, right where Kiba would've been.

"Nice instincts, kid." the clone said, staring at the silent Shino.

"Now that Naruto-dono blew away all the mist, my bugs can come out." Shino stated, pushing his shades back up. "Naruto-dono, we'll get Kurenai-sensei free, you distract Zabuza." Naruto nodded, leaving the clones that jumped in from the forest to them.

"How is he making more clones without hand signs?" Kiba asked, glancing towards the Zabuza in front of Naruto, who was waiting for Naruto to make his first move, and the clones surrounding him.

"Maybe he's mastered this technique." Shino guessed, also wondering how it was possible. "Whatever he's doing, it's going to be a pain in the ass if he keeps making more clones. Naruto-dono, if possible, take him out."

As soon as the request left his mouth the blond disappeared, reappearing behind a surprised Zabuza, kunai in hand. Reflectively, the Kiri-nin brought his sword behind him, blocking Naruto's stab before jumping back.

"Quick one, aren't you?" Zabuza stated. "I might have to take this serious." he said, gripping the hilt of his blade tightly. Almost simultaneously they ran towards each other, meeting at the middle, Naruto barely able to hold back the heavy sword with two kunai. With a bit of effort, he pushed the sword back enough for him to jump back.

_'He's pretty strong for a human.'_ thought the blond demon as he glanced at Zabuza. When the man smirked, Naruto turned around in time to block a swing from a clone, but left himself open when the real Zabuza swung his sword at him from behind.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled when she saw the mist-nin slash Naruto across the back. The only thing stopping her from running to him was an arm outstretched in front of her.

"Sakura-san, I know you're worried about Naruto-dono, but with everyone else fighting, and sensei trapped, it's up to me and you to protect Tazuna-san." Hinata said, her voice, while still low, full of resolve and her doujutsu, byakugan activated.

Just as Sakura was about to tell Hinata that she'd probably be able to do it by herself, a shuriken whizzed by, from behind, cutting the lavender eyed girl's cheek slightly. _'What the hell?' _thought Sakura, wondering why the girl hadn't dodged.

"Sakura-san, can you put up a genjutsu that'll conceal our location?" Hinata asked. "I'll try to take down any clone that tries to attack us, but they can still throw kunai and shuriken at us, and the byakugan has a blind spot. But if they can't see exactly where we are, then it shouldn't matter."

Sakura nodded, performing the necessary hand signs. "Kieuseru no jutsu!" Chakra began to cover the three slowly, making them invisible to those outside the affected area. "I can only hold this technique for ten minutes, max, and it'll only cover a five meter radius, so don't move outside it." Sakura informed the two beside her.

"Hopefully they can free your sensei and we can get out of here before then." Tazuna said, with the two girls silently agreeing.

"Looks like your bitches have decided to hide themselves." Zabuza commented as he chased Naruto, who was jumping from branch to branch, swinging his sword. "Too bad, I kind of enjoyed watching them. The one with the long hair had a decent chest, and it appears she has the byakugan, doesn't she?" Zabuza asked, rhetorically, missing Naruto by only a few centimeters on the last swing. "I'd probably be able to sell her as a slave to the cloud village after I have my fun with her. But as for the Illusionist and that pink haired bitch with the nice ass, I'll kill them after I've had my fun."

Naruto stopped on the branch he was on, clenching his fists, his face contorted in a look of pain. He was trying to stay calm throughout the fight, seeing as somehow every time he got nicked by the massive blade, he felt both a great deal of pain and himself lose control of his demonic chakra before it would decrease. However, when the man chasing him voiced his plans for his mate, he became unbelievably angry.

_**'Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill.'**_ a dark voice repeated in his head, slowly, almost like a mantra. One that was extremely hard to ignore.

The blond demon was so out of it, he didn't notice Zabuza landed next to him and put his sword's blade against the side of his neck, holding it there, waiting for him to open his eyes. _'I want to see the life leave his fearful eyes when I kill him. After all, I wouldn't have had to be here if he hadn't killed the demon eels.'_ Zabuza thought, his hand trembling with anticipation. At that moment, however, his mind was flooded with the memories of the clone he had created before the fight, the one he had given about half his chakra to and ordered to make more clones for him. Apparently, the black fox had found and dispersed it and now the two boys were onto the last four clones.

Snarling, Zabuza pushed his sword down, cutting into the blond's chest, and jumped away before he was completely through, causing his bade to arch back to the same side that the cut started.

Just as Shino and Kiba finished off the last two clones and were making a sprint for the one holding their sensei captive, Zabuza appeared in front of them, kicking Shino away and swinging his blade at Kiba, who was pushed out of the way by Akamaru. Said dog whined in pain as it received a rather bad cut along it right rear leg.

"Akamaru!" Kiba yelled, moving towards his injured companion, who was trying to get up again. "Relax boy, lemme take a look at it." he said as the dog lay back down. The wound was big but not deep, it would probably be alright as long as it received some treatment. "I'll have to ask Naruto for some more of that healing cream."

"How sad, did the fucking pooch get hurt?" Zabuza asked, before kicking Kiba across the face, sending him a few feet away. The brown haired teen looked up, his face horror struck when he noticed that the mist-nin had the tip of his blade flat against Akamaru's neck, getting ready to decapitate the dog guillotine style. "This is why you don't bring your pets onto the battlefield." the man smirked, noting that they were to scared to move in fear that he'd kill the dog instantly. "Now watch, because this is how I'll kill those three bitches when I'm done fucking them."

"Akamaru!" Kiba yelled as Zabuza pushed down and blood filled the air.

------- Two Minutes Earlier -------

Naruto grunted as he felt Zabuza's blade slice across his shoulder and arc across the left side of his chest. Again it felt five times worse than it should have. The blond grit his teeth as he hit the ground, both from the pain and his anger._ 'How could I space out that much in the middle of a battle.' _he mentally berated himself. He would probably hit himself if he could move his arms, but the pain was too much. _'I hope they can handle him while I recover.' _However, as he thought that, he could feel himself losing consciousness.

_**'Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill.' **_he heard the familiar voice in his mind as he got closer and closer to unconsciousness.

_'No! I don't want Sakura-chan to see me like that.'_ he screamed in his mind. Then he remembered what Zabuza planned to do to the girls, and he struggled to get up, intent on not giving the man a chance to touch his mate. However, all he could do was push himself up enough to see Zabuza place his sword against Kiba's dog's neck. _'Dammit! Come on, move body! What if that were Shadow?' _Naruto said in his head, struggling harder, angry at himself for being so pitifully useless.

What Naruto heard next was all it took to send him over the edge. "—This is how I'll kill those three bitches when I'm done fucking them."

In the blink of an eye, Naruto appeared in front of Zabuza and smacked the sword out of it's current position. The hit was actually so fast and strong, that the sword was sent flying out of Zabuza's hands and embedded halfway into a tree. Naruto's hand had received a gash from hitting the edged side of the sword. Fisting that very hand, Naruto punched Zabuza, sending him onto the surface of the water.

Hand clutching his face, Zabuza rose to his feet, trying to make sense of what had happened. One second he's about to decapitate the dog, and the next he's sent flying. All he remembered was a yellow blur. Looking over towards the group of ninja on shore, his eyes widened when he noticed the blond brat was standing there, arm still outstretched from when he punched him.

"How is he still alive?" he muttered to himself, glaring knives at the teen. When said teen turned towards him, Zabuza froze for a moment. "It can't be... is that the _sharingan_?" he asked, staring into the blood red eyes in front of him. It seemed impossible as he knew an Uchiha has always been dark haired, which was beside the point that they were all dead. Except two brothers.

From on shore, Naruto glared at Zabuza, getting ready to kill him as soon as he came back onto shore. _'He's lucky that's the only thing a great demon like me can't do, walk on water.' _Naruto thought, his hand opening a bit, but still closed enough that he could swipe at the human with his claws. _'I'm going to have to learn to do that; it's shameful for me not to know something that looks so simple.' _He arched an eyebrow when he noticed Zabuza going through a series of hand signs.

"Congratulations, Brat, you've officially gotten on my nerves." Zabuza yelled as he completed his hand signs. "Now here's your prize; Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" As soon as he finished, water began to rise in a pillar before beginning to take the shape of a dragon. The water inside the dragon moved around with enough force to make it seem that it roared. It turned towards the group on the shore, roaring again as it headed straight towards them.

Kiba, carrying Akamaru, and Shino jumped into the trees, away from the dragon's path, but Naruto stayed still, not even flinching. In fact, he had an amused grin plastered on his face.

At that time, Sakura, Hinata and Tazuna came back into view, Sakura's genjutsu having exhausted her. When they saw the large water dragon heading towards the shore, they got ready to leap into the trees, but just as Hinata jumped away with the bridge builder, Sakura noticed Naruto wasn't moving from his spot.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled, fearing that all the wounds that were visible on his body must be preventing him from moving. As she rushed towards him, so did the dragon, only it was faster. She could only watch in horror as, with the force of a tsunami, it crashed into Naruto.

"Kaze Onijutsu; Ranken." Naruto's voice came from inside the rushing water, though it wasn't said loud enough for everyone else other than Sakura to hear. Immediately, the water dragon was cut in two horizontally, the invisible attack following the body of the dragon until it reached Zabuza, where it came out of the water and, no longer being able to slice due to losing power along the way, crashed into Zabuza, knocking him backwards into the air.

_'What the... fuck _was_ that?'_ Zabuza mentally asked himself as he fell back towards the sea under him. That was, until he was hit by what seemed like the same attack, only from the opposite direction, knocking him towards the shore. With a pained grunt, the Kiri-nin collided roughly with a tree before falling to his knees on the ground.

As soon as he was up and had turned around, Naruto was in front of him, smirking, as one of his hands went around Zabuza's neck, pushing him into the tree behind him, and the other hand was occupied with it's constant acquaintance with the Kiri nin's face. After about a minute of assaulting Zabuza, Naruto pulled back his hand, fingers opening ready to delve into Zabuza's throat. That's when Zabuza saw his eyes again, noting that while they were just as red, if not redder than the sharingan, they held more resemblance to those of a demon with the vertically slit pupils.

Before Naruto could connect the final strike, however, he was forced to tilted to the side slightly as a few projectiles flew past him, sinking into Zabuza's neck and chest, over vital spots. Said man grunted before going motionless, his eyes becoming dull and lifeless. Naruto arched an eyebrow, turning to look at the direction from which the projectiles, which he noticed where senbon, came from.

In the tree behind him was a masked figure with long hair tied up on top of it's head in a bun head together by a light green cloth. The person wore a green loose fitting short sleeved coat with light green lining held together by a dark green obi and a long sleeved dark green shirt under and pants the same color. On the mask were four small wavy lines, indicating the figure was a Kiri nin.

"I'm sorry for almost hitting you, but I'll be taking that corpse." the ninja said, standing from the crouching position it was in. Naruto merely continued to stared at the ninja, confusion written on his face.

"And who the hell are you?" he asked rudely, not flinching when he felt his mate's hand on his shoulder. He'd sensed her walking towards him, but the mysterious person in the tree had him aggravated and on edge. Aggravated because of the way he came in and demanded the corpse of a human he was sure had a nice price on his head, and on edge by how a human had gotten so close without him noticing until he heard the senbon cut through a leaf on it's way towards Zabuza's body.

"I am Haku." the ninja responded, jumping down onto the ground, landing without making a sound. Even Naruto didn't hear anything with his heightened hearing. "I was charged with capturing Zabuza. Though I had lost his trail for a while, I came to this land as soon as I heard he had been spotted here. And though I resent not getting here earlier to help you, I still have to take that body." Naruto's eyebrows knit together as he glared at the ninja.

"It's alright, Naruto. Give him the body." Sakura said, recognizing the clothes that the hunter nin of Kirigakure wore. He seemed to be taking in her words, still glaring at the hunter nin, so she examined all the wounds Naruto had received, staring at the cut he had received on his back. She didn't know how he was still standing, mush less how he had taken that water dragon head on. _'Naruto really is amazing, taking down one of the seven best swordsmen from the mist.'_ Sakura thought, turning when she heard someone walking on water.

"Do as he says, Naruto-san." Kurenai said, making her way onto the shore, her clothes wet from when the water prison broke, due to the water clone dispersing. "He's a Kiri Hunter nin. It's his job to hunt down rogue ninjas like Zabuza." She explained, shifting her gaze from her squad, all of which where tending to Akamaru. "He has more right to Zabuza's body than we do, just because he was charged to hunt him down."

Naruto 'tch'ed before throwing Zabuza towards the hunter nin, the body landing face down, making the senbon embed themselves deeper, all but disappearing into his body. "Whatever. Guess this is the thanks I get for doing all the work, huh? I don't even get to collect the bounty on Zabuza's head." He said, aggravated, before walking towards the path leading into the forest.

"Wait a second, what do you mean, 'doing all the work'? Everyone fought just as hard as you did." Kurenai retorted as the Kiri nin vanished, taking Zabuza's body and blade with him. "Zabuza was defeated because everyone helped, whether they fought him directly," obviously she was referring to Shino and Kiba, who had received multiple wounds and bruises, though none as bad as Naruto's, "or protected Tazuna-san." she finished, referring to Sakura and Hinata, who had gotten some cut by the few attacks that had gotten past their defensive formation.

"Please, without me, your students would have died. The boys took on clones that couldn't have had more than five percent of the real Zabuza's strength. Sure the girls protected the bridge builder, but everything would have gone to hell if I hadn't been here to defeat Zabuza, who did not disappear after one punch." Naruto snapped back, turning around, facing them for the first time. "And you shouldn't even be saying anything, because you were the most useless during the battle, 'Bloody Illusionist'." he added, saying the nickname mockingly, when Kurenai tried to say something else.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, unable to believe what she was hearing, from Naruto no less. "What the hell's wrong with you?" She never imagined Naruto would ever act like he currently was. It almost seemed like he was a different person. But his eyes were what had her worried, as instead of the joyful vibrant blues she'd fallen in love with, they were a deep malevolent red. _'Those look like the eyes of an evil demon.'_ she thought to herself, a tiny part of her hoping that she hadn't made some sort of mistake in falling for the blond so fast. Though the rest of her knew their was some reason for his behavior.

"Hey, retard, calm down." Shadow said as he came out of some bushes towards the right. Naruto turned his gaze from Sakura to Shadow, his eyes gaining a slight edge to them causing Shadow to dig his claws into the earth. He knew of his master's violent tendencies when he he became this way. What Naruto said, however, surprised him.

"Fuck it. It's not worth it." he muttered, no one but Shadow hearing him. "Old man, lead the way to our destination." Naruto said as he went and picked up his backpack. It took Tazuna a second for Naruto's words to sink in before he nodded his head.

"Right. Let's head over to my house and get all of you patched up." he suggested, figuring that the Konoha ninja would be reluctant to ask Naruto for his healing cream. "Then tomorrow we'll go to the bridge." Everyone seemed to agree, though it was clear that the tension was high between the group and Naruto, which was most likely the reason he walked so far ahead of the group.

_'I'm going to talk to him, get him to apologize and find out why he acted like that.'_ Sakura thought, as she ignored Kiba's comment of 'Typical Suna nin', trying to make her feet walk faster. For some reason, however, they refused to move any quicker than they already were. _'Am I that tired from sustaining that genjutsu back there?'_ she asked herself mentally. She felt fine, though, and her chakra should have returned by now.

It was like her body had it's own will and didn't want to move faster. _'I'm hesitant to speak with him.'_ she admitted to herself. Hesitant wasn't the right word though. What she felt was fear. Fear of Naruto. Fear of finding out that he was actually like this, and had just been acting. Fear that she had rushed into a permanent relationship with a demon without knowing everything about him. Fear of the last two weeks being a lie. But most of all, she feared that if she went to talk to him, and her other fears turned out true, she might regret leaving her village.

_'No. There's no way Naruto would have been lying to me. He told me he'd never lie to me.'_ she thought. Fear, however, was a powerful emotion. It pulled at her growing insecurities as it tried to nestle it's way further into her head. Before she knew it, she was clenching her fists and biting her bottom lip as she blinked away the moisture from her eyes, her thoughts frightening her to the verge of tears. Shadow noticed.

"Hey, Pinky." he said, making her turn to him with a small glare, but her quickly blinking, glistening eyes took away most of the effect. "Don't worry about Master's behavior. It's just his demon blood acting up." he said, obviously trying to calm her down. Sakura's eye's widened.

_'What's he doing mentioning Naruto's a demon when we're surrounded by everyone.'_ she thought frantically, turning her head only to noticed that she _had_ in fact been walking a little faster than everyone else, and she was about halfway between Naruto and squad eight, plus their charge. "What do you mean?" the rosette asked.

"Master Naruto's nice for a demon, wouldn't you say?" he asked back, not answering her question. She nodded, not knowing where he was going with this. "A little too nice for a demon." he continued, making Sakura arch one of her thin eyebrows slightly. "Demons are, by nature, a violent species. Destruction and carnage is in our blood, no demon can deny this. Even demons that try to live peaceful lives will occasionally be unable to resist going wild. Master is no exception and he will return to normal. He just needs some time, usually around half to a full hour."

"So you're saying that he was overcome by his demonic blood?" Sakura questioned, not understanding. Naruto hadn't gone berserk and gone on a rampage, he'd just become rude.

"Yes. And while he's never gone into a killing spree or anything like that, this is the first time I've seen him so calm while he's like this. He's usually an asshole and completely ruthless against whatever opponent got him like that." Shadow answered, Naruto's earlier comment coming to his mind again. "If I had to guess, I'd say he was trying to control himself in front of you, pinky."

Sakura looked down, ashamed with herself for her earlier thoughts. _'How could I have doubted Naruto like that?'_ she thought, looking up from the ground, her gaze settled on Naruto's back. He was now slightly closer, though whether it was from her walking faster without noticing, or from the pain of his wounds finally sinking in, she didn't know. Not wanting to chance letting him just collapse halfway there, she sped up some, Shadow fallowing her as she approached Naruto.

Naruto had begun to lose feeling in his left arm, the side where Zabuza's blade had cut around in an arch as he had jumped away to toy with Kiba and Shino, and the exhaustion from using one of his more powerful Onijutsu was getting to him. However he doubted he could ask for assistance for the rest of the walk after his earlier behavior. _'Besides, I'm a demon, I don't need their assistance.'_ he thought, about to reach his right arm over and clutch his left side until he felt it raised and a small body slip through, making his arm rest over a familiar pair of shoulders.

"I'd go on your other side, but I think it would cause more pain if I press up against a wound that bad." Sakura said, staring him in the eyes when he turned to her before he looked away. She noticed his eyes weren't as red as they were before. "I know what happened back there."

"I know you know. I heard Shadow talking with you." Naruto replied, his voice calm, almost indifferent.

"Shadow says you were restraining yourself back there. Is that true?"

"Yes."

Sakura turned to look at where they were going, noting she could see a small house further down the road. "May I ask what it was that made you hold back?" she asked. She wanted to know, needed to be sure that the reason he fought back his very nature was because of her, so that any lingering thoughts of regret would fade away. All she received from the blond was silence for a few seconds.

"Because of you." He finally answered. "I had told myself that I wouldn't give into my demon blood after I marked you, that I would protect you with my own power. I hate when I let my blood influence me, it makes me want to do things I would _never_ do otherwise. Plus, I thought you would regret coming with me if you saw me acting like the monsters I myself hate." by now he had turned to meet her gaze, and she saw that one of his eyes had turned back into the beautiful sapphire that it used to be. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, I hoped you would never see me like that."

Sakura smiled sadly. "To be honest, I was scared when I saw you acting like that. I thought for a moment that you had been lying to me—"

"I told you I would never lie to you."

"I know." she smiled, once again looking down the road at the house that couldn't be more than 20 paces away by now. "And I'll never doubt that again. But I want _you_ to know something now." she added, making Naruto look down at her. "No matter what what you do, or did, I'll never regret leaving my village to come with you. Never doubt that." she finished, watching as his other eye also returned to it's former sapphire.

Naruto smiled, opening his mouth to say something only to be interrupted when the door in front of the house opened, a woman with long raven hair stepping out. "I'm going to the market, Ina—Oh my god, what happened to you!?" she screamed when she saw Naruto, who was at the time passing in front of the house with Sakura and Shadow. "Where did you get those injuries?"

"Tsunami!" Tazuna yelled from behind the trio, making the woman in front of them look down the road.

"Tou-san, you're back!" she said, her eyes lighting up.

"Yes, but can we save the welcome backs for later? These ninja are injured, especially the blond one." Tazuna said as he approached the house, his eyes widening as he was hit in the face by a rock Tsunami had thrown at him.

"That's for leaving to recruit assistants the day I was going out on a date with that merchant that was passing by! You knew I needed you to watch Inari!" she shouted, squatting down to pick up another rock.

"I know, I know! I'll apologize later, but right now we need to tend to," he ducked the second rock she threw at him, "our saviors wounds." she blinked, remembering the severely injured young man in front of her.

"Oh. Right. Come in, Come in." she said ushering them inside, a small blush of embarrassment on her face. Everyone walked in, taking note of how small the house really was. "I'll get the medical equipment." she said, running up the stairs as she came inside after them. Inside, it seemed the tension from before hadn't gone away. Everyone sat down on the floor, Naruto, Sakura and Shadow sitting on the wall opposite team eight.

Kiba put Akamaru down on a futon and, swallowing his pride, stepped towards them. "Naruto... could I borrow that healing cream from before?" he asked, hoping to use it on Akamaru. Naruto nodded, asking Sakura if she could take it out of his backpack. She did so, tossing it to Kiba when she found it.

"You can go ahead and use it on yourselves, but not on the dog." Naruto said when Kiba caught it, making the boy's eyebrows knit together.

"Why not?" Kiba half shouted, anger clearly in his voice. "Just because Akamaru's a dog doesn't mean he's replaceable."

"I know that, I have a companion too." Naruto said, pointing at shadow with his right hand, his left arm having gone completely numb by then. "But that cream only works on humans. It'll only feel like your rubbing soap on it's wound if you use it on him." Naruto explained, his vision wavering when he finished. _'Guess the effects of my demon blood are finally going away.'_

"Don't worry." Tsunami said, coming down with a rather large medical kit, placing it on top of the table in the middle of the room. "I'm sure I must have something to help him." opening the case, she pulled out a small bottle some wrapping bandages. "Could someone please get me a wet cloth?" she asked as she knelt down in front of Akamaru.

"I'll get it." Hinata said, running over to the sink. She came back and gave Tsunami a cloth she found at the sink, which had saved her the trouble of searching for one.

"Thanks. Now, I'm going to clean it's wound. It's going to hurt, so you guys will need to hold it down." the raven haired woman ordered, Kiba and Shino nodding their heads as they held down the white dog. Uncapping the small bottle, Tsunami poured a bit of the liquid along the dog's wound, making it whine as it struggled against Kiba's and Shino's grip, trying to get away.

"Akamaru, calm down, boy." Kiba said, trying to get the animal to stop struggling. "The sooner we can get this over with, the sooner it'll stop hurting." It took a few seconds for Kiba's words to sink in before Akamaru stopped struggling.

Tsunami mentally thanked Kiba for calming down the animal as she got to work cleaning the wound. As soon as she was done cleaning it, she set to wrapping it, making sure to wrap it tight enough that it couldn't bend, but not too tight. "There." she said, gathering her equipment. "It should heal fine, but I'd recommend it not move for at least a week" she suggested, taking out some more supplies.

"Wow, lady, you sure knew what to do." Kiba complimented, receiving the healing cream from Shino. While they had been restraining Akamaru, Hinata had been adding some to her wounds, and Shino had done the same after Kiba told him he could handle the rest himself towards the end. Now it was his turn.

"Well, a few years ago I was training to be a veterinarian. But then I got pregnant before my first year finished, so I had to drop out." Tsunami explained, putting away the supplies she was going to use to heal the ninja, seeing as they were already healed.

"So you have a kid?" Sakura asked, her hand running through Naruto's hair. He'd fallen asleep halfway through the little procedure. Given his condition, she'd be more concerned but he'd told her he was going to sleep, and she could still feel his breath against her skin as he exhaled.

Tsunami turned, nodding as Kiba walked over to give Sakura the cream so she and Naruto could use it. As he neared, however, he noticed something twitch in Naruto's hair. _'What the hell's that?'_ thought the brown haired boy, staring harder.

It seemed like it was an ear and it seemed like Sakura was playing with the ear, though she appeared to be doing it subconsciously. The ear would twitch if one of Sakura's fingers brushed the inside.

"Yes, I had a boy. Afterwards, I couldn't return to school while taking care of a baby, especially after the father left me, so I just stayed home to raise him myself." she explained before sighing, her hands going to her hips. "He's turning twelve soon, but the way he acts sometimes I swear he's still seven."

"If I'm such a pain, why don't you just kick me out then?" came a voice from the direction of the stairs. Everyone, even Kiba who was rubbing his eyes, turned to find a young preteen boy, most likely Tsunami's son. He wore a sleeveless black shirt, with a pair of gray overalls, with the two straps hanging around his waist. A white with blue hat covered his medium length raven hair, but fell short of blocking his charcoal colored eyes.

"Inari, stop saying that, and take off your hat, you know I don't like it when you wear it at home." Tsunami said, causing Inari to roll his eyes.

"I don't want to, so stop nagging me." Inari said, moving to the refrigerator where he quickly grabbed a bottle of water and returned to the bottom of the stairs. There he stopped, turning his head towards the group. "I'd go back home if I were you guys. There's no way you'll live if you stay. Not even Demons can defy Gato." he said ominously before going up the stairs.

Tsunami merely shook her head, sighing. "What am I going to do with that boy?" she asked aloud.

"Leave him, he's just entering that rebellious stage." Naruto said drowsily, trying to make himself more comfortable on Sakura's shoulder by nuzzling his head into her neck. The action only made the rosette giggle as his hair tickled her skin. The way the couple was acting almost made team eight forget about how the blond had behaved after the battle.

Kiba was more preoccupied trying to figure what was wrong with his eyes. One second, he sees Naruto with animal ears, then the next their gone. He had turned away for the brief minute that Inari had come down and when he'd turned back to Naruto, he couldn't find a trace of the ears he thought he'd seen. _'Damn, maybe I'm more tired from that fight than I thought.'_ Kiba thought.

Shadow, who had been curled up to Naruto's left and had been watching Kiba since he'd moved towards Naruto and Sakura, decided it would be best to get Naruto away from the rest for a bit. Clearly the brown haired teen had noticed his master's transformation disappear when the blond had briefly lost consciousness.

"Hey, dog boy, how come you've been just standing there for five minutes? Don't tell me you've been staring at my master's fiancé?" Shadow said, making everyone look at Kiba, who had a blush of embarrassment on his face.

"N-no. D-don't be ridiculous." Kiba muttered back, embarrassed at being caught staring towards the two for so long and at the large accusation. "I just came to return this," he held out the container, "but I didn't want to interrupt you two." he explained. Sakura took the item and Kiba moved back to where Akamaru was as fast as he could, trying to ignore Naruto's amused laughter.

"Tazuna-san," Naruto called out after he stopped laughing, "do you have a room where I can go apply this and rest? Most likely a wound this big won't heal even with the help of my mother's cream." Naruto said, receiving a nod from the old man.

"I'll sleep in this room and you can use my room. It's the last door in the hallway upstairs." Tazuna said before looking at his daughter. "That is, if my daughter here didn't turn it into a storage room while I was gone." Tsunami merely rolled her eyes, admitting that she'd thought about putting it up for rent but decided against it.

Naruto bowed his head slightly, thanking the elder male before trying to get up on his own. The pathetic attempt he made at getting up only made Sakura sigh before helping him, actually going to his left side this time.

"Guess I'm going to be helping you up the stairs, huh?" Sakura asked rhetorically. Naruto smiled sheepishly.

"It's a good thing you're helping me Sakura-chan, I didn't think I'd be able to reach the wounds on my back." Naruto said, receiving a nod of agreement from the girl.

Kiba grinned as he watched the two teens slowly go up the stairs, noting that they were heading towards a room alone. "Hey, behave yourselves up there! Remember that there's a little boy in on of those rooms!" he shouted, receiving a smack to the back of his head by his sensei for thinking that way.

Sakura, thankful that Kurenai had hit Kiba for her, blushed profusely while Naruto chuckled, shaking his head. The two continued upstairs and to the last door in the hallway. Entering it, they found a rather plain room, with nothing but a large futon mattress on the floor and a few cabinets and drawers. Sakura walked Naruto to the mattress, about to lay him down gently when he suddenly squirmed free, letting himself fall flat onto the futon, face down. His wound made a sickening 'squish' as he fell on top of it, making Sakura wince.

"Ow..." Naruto mumbled into the pillow, his transformation disappearing. Sakura shook her head.

"Why did you do that if you knew it would hurt?"

"I thought it would be comfier..."

"It's a futon, of course it's not gonna be comfy." Sakura said, kneeling down next to him before lifting his shirt up and pulling out a kunai.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doin' Sakura-chan?" Naruto exclaimed, panicking as he turned and rose, before falling onto his back from the pain. "It hurts like hell..." he groaned.

"That's what you get for thinking like a pervert." Sakura said, though she did feel bad for him. His wounds looked extremely painful. "I'm trying to get this shirt off of you so I can apply your mother's cream onto these wounds."

"That doesn't explain why your cutting it up..." he muttered, not trying to stop her anymore.

"The shirt's ruined anyways, what's the point of just taking it off?" she asked, continuing when he didn't answer. "Besides, taking it off normally would hurt more." she added.

"True... but I was serious when I said it only works on humans." Naruto told her, making her hands freeze.

"Then what about these wounds?" Sakura asked, becoming worried. She'd thought that Naruto would be fine as long as they had his mother's miracle cream. But if it didn't even work on him...

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan." he said, reaching for one of her hands with his right one. "I've never had an injury that didn't heal after a good night's sleep." he finished, smiling.

When what he said finally sunk into her head, she glared at him. "Then why didn't you say something before I spent my time and energy ripping up your bloody shirt?" she asked, angrily. Naruto laughed nervously.

"It did kinda hurt, so I thought since, you know, you'd already started, maybe you could help me take it off?" by the end, he sounded more like he was pleading for her to continue rather than answering her.

"If you weren't so badly injured, I'd hit you." she growled through clenched teeth. She continued, though, ripping his shirt until it was basically just a rag underneath him. "Roll over." she ordered, helping him. She removed the useless piece of cloth from underneath him before he returned to his position on his back, noting that there was a thin line of blood on the futon from the cut on his back.

She gathered all the pieces of his former shirt so that she could go down and throw them out and hopefully get some bandages for Naruto. As she stood, though, his hand reached out and grabbed her arm. She turned her head to look at him and saw that he was staring at the cuts that she had received.

Seeing as she had been unable to move for the genjutsu to work, she hadn't been surprised when she got the occasional cut. Hinata was only one girl, after all. She couldn't have been everywhere. She figured she must have had around fifteen cuts, most small but some were bigger.

Naruto didn't say anything, he merely kept staring for a few seconds. When he tugged on her arm gently, she let him pull her down until she ended up sitting on her knees beside him. As he uncapped the container, Sakura noticed that he was using the arm that had been dangling at his side. Once he had it opened, he dabbed his finger in the cream and began to rub it over whatever cut he found.

The way he rubbed it over her cut sent a shiver down her spine. It was exactly like how he'd done it when they first met. From the way he was touching her gently, his hand rubbing in a way that made her wonder how it wound feel on another part of her body, to the way he lingered on each cut, even after it had closed, before moving to another one.

Naruto had started on her arms, moving up to her shoulders before lifting her shirt slightly, healing any cut that had reached her body, one of which was a little under one of her breasts, making her gasp. After that, he moved down to her legs, forcing himself to sit up and her to lie down. He took her shoes off, seeing as they were knee high sandals, slowly pulling them off her feet before throwing them towards the edge of the mattress.

After he healed the few cuts on her legs, he grabbed enough cream to spread around his hands before rubbing her feet, relieving any soreness she had built up from all the walking they had been doing recently. It was something he had done before, when she had cut her foot on a sharp rock in the edge of a river but unlike the last time, this time he was just doing it to make her feel good. His way of apologizing for the day's events, she guessed.

When he finished rubbing her feet, by which time she was already curling her toes from the pleasure his teasing touches were giving her, he moved up her body, his face hovering over hers as he gave her a sweet peck on the lips. "Better go see if—mph"

Whatever he was gonna say was cut off as Sakura grabbed his head and pressed her lips against his in a smoldering kiss. She force her tongue into his mouth and teased his own into hers. When he responded to the kiss, lowering some more until she wasn't raised off the bed anymore, she let go of the back of his head and moved her hands to the fly on her shirt, pulling it down.

As soon as Naruto heard the sound of a zipper opening he broke the kiss, his eyes widening when he saw the bit of cleavage that was revealed to him by her half opened shirt. He moved his left hand to grab one of hers, stopping it from opening further. "Whoa, whoa, Sakura-chan, What're you doin'? I thought we agreed that we would wait a little longer before going any further?"

"Naruto, it's your fault that I'm like this." she said as she finished opening her shirt, his weakened arm not being able to stop her. As he sat up, so did she, her hands once again grabbing the back of his head. "Now man up and take responsibility."

"What? I don't even know what that mea—mph"

Once again, her lips had cut him off, but this time he grabbed her shoulders and pushed himself away. He instantly regretted it when he noticed that from his current angle and distance, he could see her cleavage again, as well as the white bra she was wearing, but it seemed to bounce some from him pushing her back slightly, making him hold back a nosebleed and his resistance waver.

She once again exploited his weaker arm, pushing it away so she could reach him, planting wet kisses along his jaw. "Come one, Naruto. You know you want to do this as much as I do." she muttered against his skin, her breath making him shiver.

He didn't know how much longer his will could last. It would probably break if she kept it up for a little while longer, that he knew. What he didn't know was how he could get her to stop. _'There has to be some way to snap her out of it.'_ he thought, looking around the room, not finding anything that would help. _'C'mon, there has to be some wa—oh, god, not the ears.' _

She'd found his weak spot, there was no way he could resist her if she kept messing with his ears like she currently was. He could actually see the last couple bricks crumbling from the wall he called his will. He was only a few more seconds from giving in.

"Damn. And I thought those Icha Icha books were unadulterated smut." Shadow's voice came from the window behind Sakura, making her turn around. "I thought you two were gonna wait till you knew each other better, or something like that?"

Naruto thanked whatever upper being there was that Shadow had interrupted them. Sakura however, didn't share his feeling of joy. "Shadow," Sakura began, getting up and walking towards the window, "leave." she pushed the fox off the window before shutting it. The sound of Shadow falling into a trash can and shouting 'damn broad' could be heard slightly.

After she pulled down the shade, which was unnecessary seeing as the sun was almost finished setting, Sakura removed her open shirt, letting it drop on the floor. Walking towards the futon, she dropped back onto her knees and crawled the rest of the way to Naruto, making her breasts get pressed together and move with the motions of her arms. "Now, where were we?"

"S-Sakura-chan, please. I-I'm tired, and I'm injured from fighting that freak with no eyebrows and... and we promised to hold off on the sex 'til we knew more about each other."

By the time he'd finished talking, Sakura had backed him into a wall, but she stopped when she heard what he said. "Naruto, you're right." she said softly, making him blink as she sat on her knees. She closed her eyes, taking a few more deep breaths to calm herself down, not noticing Naruto's wide eyes were glued to her chest as it heaved up and down.

"Uh... Sakura-chan, I was thinking, I bet you'd like to take a shower, in a real bath tub, since you don't seem to like taking baths in rivers and lakes." Naruto suggested, getting a nod from Sakura as she opened her eyes.

"Yeah, that would be nice." she admitted, her body tingling with anticipation at finally showering how it used to. She then noticed that he seemed to be staring at something, quite intently, and, following his gaze, felt her cheeks turn red in anger and embarrassment. She suddenly remembered she was half naked.

Turning around quickly, she moved to retrieve her shirt, still able to feel his eyes on her. When she was halfway across the room, she grabbed the pillow that was on the futon. "Naruto..." she called him before throwing the pillow at him. "Stop staring at my body like that, you pervert!" with that she picked up her shirt, putting it on as she walked to the door.

"Sakura-chan, you're mean. You're the one who took off your shirt." Naruto whined, rubbing the back of his head seeing as it had hit the wall due to the force of the pillow.

"And who's fault is it that I got horny?" Sakura asked, turning to glare at him, making him hold the same pillow up as a shield.

"Mine. It was all my fault."

Sakura smirked, opening the door. "I want you sleeping by the time I come back. And don't hog the futon." she ordered, stepping out and closing the door behind her.

As soon as she was gone, Naruto moved over to the futon and, placing the pillow down, allowed himself to collapse on it again. "Man, I'm tired." he mumbled into the pillow, ignoring the light movement in the room.

"Don't tell me fighting that human tired you out, Master Naruto." Shadow said, having come in through the window Sakura had reopened, no doubt wanting to let some cool air enter the room. "You weren't even fighting seriously."

"Yes I was." Naruto responded, making Shadow stare at him strangely. "Or, at least, I was trying to. Each time he cut me with that damn sword, I lost control of my chakra felt some of my energy disappear. And it hurt a lot more than it should have." Naruto explained, turning his head to look at the dark fox.

"So I guess it's true what we heard? That the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū have blades that were forged specifically to fight demons." Shadow stated, getting a shrug from the blond.

"I dunno and I don't care as long as I never meet any more of them. Just glad that guy's dead." Naruto muttered, closing his eyes, sighing. When he opened them, his carefree expression was gone. "Shadow... What were you doing during that fight? I didn't see you help out at all." Naruto accused, making the fox cringe at his tone of voice.

"I was scanning the area for any more possible enemies, and to figure out how he kept making more clones. Even the clone masters we've met before had to move some part of their body to make a clone without hand signs, but Zabuza wasn't. I found a clone that was actually making clones." Shadow explained. Naruto rose an eyebrow.

"A clone making clones?"

"No doubt Zabuza gave it some chakra and told it to sit back, just in case."

"Doesn't matter now how he did it. We still won, and he's gone now." Naruto said, yawning. "I'm going to sleep."

The room was silent for a few seconds before Shadow spoke again. "I'm going to miss the Purple Rain."

"Good for you. Now that Sakura-chan's with us, I won't let it happen ever again." Naruto responded. Shadow was referring to the way it would seem to rain demon blood when Naruto would slaughter demons that forced him to give into his demonic blood. "I'll protect Sakura-chan without it. I'd rather turn into a human than let her see me like that."

"You wouldn't be strong enough to protect her if you were a human." Shadow stated.

"If it was for her, I'd become one of those pitiful half-demons." Naruto retorted, shocking Shadow. Half-demons were the equivalent of scum, not accepted by humans or demons. "Now for real, Shadow, let me go to sleep." Shadow merely curled up on the ground, deciding to join his master.

----- Ten Minutes Earlier -----

Ignoring Kiba's questions about what had taken her so long, Sakura walked down the stairs, looking for Tsunami. She found her washing the dishes, seeing as everyone had eaten while she'd been upstairs. She had been up there for almost two hours, so she figured they'd gotten tired of waiting for them, if the two plates on the table suggested anything.

"Tsunami-san, do you think I could take a shower?" she asked the older woman, receiving a nod.

"That's the bathroom." Tsunami said, pointing towards the door underneath the staircase.

Sakura thanked the woman before heading to Naruto's backpack, pulling out a set of clothes. She had grown a habit of setting out her next set of clothes when she used the ones that were previously there. Since Naruto wasn't there to bring out her sealed clothes, she simply headed into the bathroom with her clothes.

Kiba turned to Shino when the water turned on. "Who'd have thought that Sasuke's biggest fan girl would end up with someone like Naruto." he said, laughing. Shino merely pushed up his glasses.

"I find that strange." he said, receiving a nod of agreement from Kurenai.

"So do I. Just two weeks ago, when we left to retrieve Tazuna-san and his companion," ("Oh yeah. Whatever happened to the assistants you left so suddenly to recruit?" Tsunami asked, advancing on her father with a metal spoon.) "from the border of grass country and fire country, I remember seeing her ask Sasuke out on a date as they were heading out on their own mission." the red eyed woman stated.

"W-well, Sakura-san's family does travel to Shigai a lot. Perhaps N-Naruto-san does as well?" Hinata suggested, her fingers tracing the top of the cup she was holding. "P-perhaps they were close friends, and that's why Sakura's parents want to set up an engagement between them."

"If they were friends, it wouldn't seem so strange for them to become something more on their own, would it?" Tazuna asked, rubbing his shoulder where Tsunami had hit him. "Naruto-san seems to care for Sakura-san, he doesn't strike me as the type to let his parents arrange an engagement between them unless she also wanted to be with him."

"If what you're saying is true, it would make sense." Shino said, pushing his shades up again. "After all, a fan girl crush is still just that, a crush. It wouldn't hold a candle to the love two close friends develop. If that's the case."

The group went silent as they heard the shower water turn off. When Sakura walked out two minutes later, she sighed contently, turning towards Tsunami. "Thanks for letting me use your shower, Tsunami-san." she said, moving to the bottom of the staircase. "I think I'm going to go to sleep now."

"Gonna join Naruto, are we?" Tazuna teased, snickering when the rosette froze, a blush on her face.

"W-well... he is my fiancé... a-and we've been sleeping together since we hooked up almost two weeks ago." she said, her face still a bright red, not knowing that her words could be misunderstood.

"Every night for almost two weeks?" Kiba mumbled, the mental image popping into his mind causing a thin line of blood to dribble down his upper lip. Tazuna , reacting much the same, received another whack from his daughter. If possible, Sakura's face turned redder, anger mixing in with her embarrassment.

"I meant in the same bed, you perverts!" Sakura yelled, about to head upstairs when Tsunami called her.

"Why don't you eat? There's a plate on the table for you." she offered, hoping to talk to the rosette. The way the younger girl and Naruto acted reminded her of how she and Inari's father had acted. Sakura accepted, still glaring at the two males.

----- Elsewhere; Land of Waves About An Hour Ago -----

A spiky head of long white hair turned, looking past the woman giggling in front of him. What he saw walking past the building he was in made him raise an eyebrow. _'Either Naruto and Kakashi's student work really fast,'_ he thought, amused, staring at the dual haired clone, _'or there are a lot of kids that look like Arashi.' _

The boy outside was too young to be thought of as a possible heir of his late student, but his resemblance to Arashi was even greater than Naruto's, the demon he had met before. It was like he was staring at the eleven year old once-a-generation blond genius again. The only difference between them was the fact that the young boy outside had red streaks in his hair. Other than that he was identical, from his facial structure to his calm blue eyes.

"Hey, where are you going?" the scantly clad woman next to him shouted when he stood up, quickly making his way out the door.

Making his way out of the brothel, Jiraiya glanced around for the dual haired boy, finding him as he entered a book store. Even though he knew it was completely impossible for the boy to be related to his late student, he still followed him.

_'Who knows, maybe I'm witnessing the effects of reincarnation.'_ the old man thought, entering the same book store the boy had. He looked through the isles, searching for the mysterious child, noting that the farther into the store he went, the more out of place he looked. _'I don't want to look like some pedophile scoping out kids.'_ he thought as he was about to enter the children's section.

Thankfully, he found the boy talking to a young worker. The woman was about five foot four, with short red hair and a body that Jiraiya had to rate as above average, with a face to go along with it. _'Wow, forget the kid, this is the prettiest girl I've seen since I entered wave.'_ he thought lecherously.

"Wow, you're in the wrong town. That place is at the edge of the island. Head over to the east, they're building a bridge near it, you cant miss it." the woman said, her voice sounding like it fit an overweight sailor more than it did her. The boy nodded, thanking the woman before heading out of the store.

_'Oh my god, I never thought I'd be turned off by a woman that pretty just by her voice.' _Jiraiya thought, turning to leave after the boy. He followed the boy as he made his way around town, seemingly looking for something, or someone, if the way he quickly poked his head into the stores he passed before heading towards the next.

When the boy had done a full circle around the town, Jiraiya finally decided to approach the boy, but was surprised when the boy entered the same brothel he himself had just left earlier. The boy walked in glancing around before turning to the woman smoking from a pipe.

"This isn't a place for little kids, boy." the woman in the lounge said, motioning for the boy to leave as she blew out a puff of smoke.

"Did a man with long silver hair come in here, about this tall?" the boy asked, raising his hand and standing on his toes as he indicated the height of the man he was searching for. The woman blew out another puff of smoke before she sighed.

"Suki, send your customer out!" the woman yelled, making the boy grip the top of his head from the volume of her voice. The first door down the hallway to the left opened, a man with long silver hair poking his head out, a pair of red and black lace panties on his head and a foreign substance glistening around his lips.

"Suki-chan's not here right now, please leave a message." the man said, a big smile on his face which grew larger when the woman in the room squealed, 'Ryu-sama!' From what Jiraiya could tell, the woman sounded like she was up against the wall, directly near the door, with the man teasing her.

"You, this kid is looking for you." the elder woman said, pointing at the young boy with her pipe. The man looked at the boy before his face fell.

"I don't know him, kick him out." he muttered, slipping back into the room.

"Ryuk!" the boy yelled before the man walked out again, the woman holding onto his hand as he walked out, trying to convince him to stay.

"Ryu-sama, don't leave." she whined, not caring that he was pulling her out stark naked.

_'Where the hell was she when I was here?'_ Jiraiya thought outside, almost losing consciousness from the loss of blood due to his nose bleed. Her body reminded him of his former teammate's body when she was actually the same age that she appeared.

"Suki, get some clothes on, there's a minor out here!" the elder woman shouted, making the woman groan out a complaint as she walked into the room. Turning towards the two men, the woman cleared her throat. "I'm going to have to ask you to take this young man away from here, we don't want anyone telling the police that there's a minor in our brothel."

The man nodded, using the back of his hand to wipe his lips of the strange liquid on them. Sticking his head back into the room, he asked for his shirt—the woman took her panties back—before turning to exit the brothel. Once outside, they began walking towards the east, heading out of town. It didn't appear as if the silver haired man would be returning to the brothel.

Jiraiya had relocated himself in front of a vendor before the two had walked out. When they were a good twelve feet away, he began walking behind them. He followed them as they walked down the main street, heading towards the village exit on the east side. As soon as they entered the forest, he knew he'd be spotted, so he decided on using his ninja skills to conceal himself.

"What the fuck, Oujou. It's been over one hundred years since the last time I mated with a human woman..." the silver haired man, Ryuk, whined, scratching the back of his head lazily. "Couldn't you have at least let me finish?"

Jiraiya was shocked, one hundred years? It was impossible for a human to live that long and still have the energy to cast a henge to appear that young, meaning the person in front of him wasn't human. But then, the boy seemed to be bossing him around, didn't he? Did that mean that the boy was also a demon.

"Shut up, you old pervert. You said you'd wait for me in that building—"

"—I _was_ waiting in that building..."

"No you weren't, you were pointing at the damn ramen restaurant."

"Nuh-uh! I never pointed at any building, I was holding my hand up in triumph since I knew I was finally going to visit a brothel again."

"So then why did you say _that_ building?" Oujou said angrily. "You should have just said brothel."

"I thought it would be obvious what that building meant."

"Well obviously not! Shit, I was looking all over town for you, you shitty bastard!"

"And why is that? I thought you were supposed to look for clues to where your brother's weapon is." Ryuk asked, his fox ears twitching under his genjutsu. It appeared Oujou had heard something as well, since he stopped. They were at the top of the hill, the town they had just left being completely visible from their current location.

"I think I found out where it is, but first we need to find my brother." Oujou stated, sighing. "I hate Kyuubi-nii, he's always disappearing and making me wait for him." the young demon muttered, turning towards the town to see that there was an old human male standing on the path he and Ryuk had just come from.

"You two sure are having an interesting conversation there, mind if I ask a few questions?" Jiraiya asked, not allowing them to answer before he continued. "Who is this Kyuubi, and what is this weapon he is looking for?"

Oujou stared at the old human, bored, before turning back to continue down the path. "So, Ryuk, got any idea where Kyuubi-nii is?" he asked the older demon, losing interest with the eavesdropper, since he thought it was someone that might have put up a good fight, not some old geezer. In the blink of an eye, Jiraiya was in front of him, arms crossed over his chest, blocking the two from leaving.

"Is this Kyuubi you're talking about the same one from sixteen years ago?" Jiraiya asked, not taking his eyes off of them for a second. Oujou rolled his eyes.

"No shit. Of course it's the same Kyuubi from sixteen years ago." Oujou responded, rolling his eyes. He knew humans were stupid but this man gave a new meaning to the word senile. What confused Oujou, however, was the fact that the man said sixteen years ago, seeing as Kyuubi hadn't come to the human realm until fifteen human years ago.

Jiraiya froze, unable to believe the young demon. His student had given his life to defeat the beast years ago; he'd seen the beast dematerialize as it's chakra was absorbed by his student, who later died, the demonic chakra acting like poison to his human body. Yet here was another demon, claiming that the Kyuubi was still alive.

"You're lying..." Jiraiya said, trying to not let the anger show in his voice. The demon smirked, as if saying, 'believe what you want to believe.' Clenching his hands into fists, he closed his eyes for a second, regaining control of his emotions before opening them. "Take me to him." he demanded, ready to beat them both into a bloody mess and force them if they refused.

Oujou was about to laugh at the human when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Oujou, I think we should leave, now." Ryuk stated, his yellow eyes on the old man, his genjutsu gone. With it gone, so were the fake human clothes. What he wore was simple, just a white sleeveless gi and white pants, no shoes. He no longer appeared frail, having eaten and rested properly, he now appeared to have a lean build.

Before any of the two demons could react, Jiraiya was in front of them, two blue spiraling orbs of chakra in his hands. He thrust them forward, aiming at their chests, but was surprised when Ryuk pushed Oujou out of the way and grabbed the two orbs with his bare hands. He was pushed back slightly as the orbs tried to keep spinning, twisting his arms into two mutilated coils of flesh.

Jiraiya jumped back, unable to believe his eyes when the two arms began to untwist, returning to normal as if nothing had happened. He snapped out of his shock when the older demon chuckled.

"Surprised?" Ryuk asked, not needing an answer. The look on the man's face answered him. "That makes two of us. I never thought that a pure blooded human existed that had demonic chakra." he continued, making the man's eyes widen slightly. "Yes, I can feel it, you have two... no, three chakra types. Human, Demonic and... one I don't recognize."

Oujou was just as shocked as Jiraiya but whereas Jiraiya was shocked that Ryuk knew, Oujou was shocked that there was someone like that. Jiraiya was quicker to recover from his shock than Oujou was.

"Does this discovery make you hesitant to attack?" Jiraiya asked when he noticed that the older demon hadn't attacked in the couple of seconds that he spent doing nothing. Ryuk smiled.

"Actually, yes." he responded, making Jiraiya raise an eyebrow at his honesty. "In my current condition, even if Oujou were to help, we'd be defeated. So I think I'm going to be going now." Ryuk finished, glancing at Oujou. The young demon nodded, sprinting down the path at the same time as Ryuk. Turning when he saw that the man was about to start following, Oujou smirked.

"Are you sure you want to follow us?" he yelled, his hands going into a demonic hand seal. "Don't you think you should go help that town before it gets completely destroyed?"

Jiraiya was confused until he heard the sound of a building collapsing, followed by the screams of the villagers. Stopping, Jiraiya cursed them before he turned around, running back to the town. When he reached it, he ran in, about to use the Kage Bushin until he noticed that only one building had collapsed.

_'Damn it, he tricked me.'_ Jiraiya thought bitterly, realizing that it had all been a distraction so that they could escape, and it had worked. They were long gone. "At least I know where they're going?" he muttered to himself as he helped the villagers move the ruble, trying to rescue the people that had been in the building.

----- With Ryuk and Oujou -----

"Did you really destroy the whole town?" Ryuk asked as they continued to run, weaving between the trees. He had actually wanted to return and visit that girl at the brothel after Kyuubi got the Kinsei twins. Oujou smirked.

"No, just one building. But I figured I'd bluff and say the whole town would fall, figured that would make him turn around for sure." responded the younger demon, laughing. Ryuk rolled his eyes.

"Did you just destroy a random building, or did you plan to destroy one beforehand?" the silver haired demon asked, hoping that the brothel was okay and intact. This time, Oujou grinned wickedly.

"There was a book store that had a woman that looked like my mother, so I figured I'd just end her pitiful existence." Oujou answered, the grin never leaving his face.

"Wait, I think I passed that store, you mean the pretty lady with that awful voice?" Oujou nodded. "The only resemblance between them was the red hair."

"And? That's enough of a resemblance." the dual haired demon said, before adding, "Hell, even pink hair would be enough of a resemblance."

----- Northern part of Wave -----

Haku jumped from tree to tree, Zabuza on his back, still knocked out, while what looked like a demon made of ice carried the large sword the unconscious man used. Their plan for Zabuza to be knocked out long enough for them to escape had backfired slightly, thanks to the blond boy throwing the man face down onto the ground, making the needles sink deeper, almost puncturing both the heart and one of his lungs.

Thinking that the man would only be out a few minutes more than he would have been, Haku had stopped at a small clearing and removed the senbon he'd used to put Zabuza to sleep. However, after an hour had passed without the man waking, he'd decided to take him to their base, creating a moving ice creature to carry the sword.

However, seeing as Haku was a lost cause when it came to sense of direction, it had taken him longer than expected to find the base. What surprised him was the fact that Zabuza had yet to wake, it had to be four hours since he'd been knocked out. '_I guess as long as he's breathing, I shouldn't worry.'_ Haku thought, the base finally coming into view.

There was something odd about it, though. It looked like as if there was a large fire in front of it. Chalking it up to some of the guards building another ridiculously large bonfire, he didn't think much of it, but as he neared he knew he was wrong.

"What in the world happened?" Haku asked himself when he'd finally reached it. The base was in ruins, a large fire engulfing it and the field surrounding it. The bodies of the small army Zabuza had spent the last couple years building were now nothing but charred remains, some still burning. It appeared that some had tried to jump into the water, but that didn't work, if the floating, still burning bodies said anything.

He put Zabuza down, creating another two of his ice minions to guard his body before going to survey the damage, searching for anyone that might be alive so they could tell him what had happened. The closer he got to the center, the more charred everything looked. He stopped, turning with his senbon raised when he heard some movement to his left. It was a one of the older members of Zabuza's small army, a man that had joined even before he himself had.

Haku put his senbon away when he noticed that the mans left leg and arm were burned beyond healing, and even part of his face was also burned, his left cheek having had some skin peel leaving behind just the raw flesh. Haku approached the man, who upon seeing him leaned against a tree. "What happened here, Shiro-san?" he asked, helping the man support himself.

"Haku, oh my god, it was horrible! Everyone's dead, everyone's d-dead..." the man sobbed, unable to continue. Haku looked around, still unable to believe that it was real.

"Who did this, Shiro-san?" he asked again, once Shiro had calmed down. The man just shook his head, making Haku grip the front of his shirt and push him into the tree he was leaning against. "Tell me!"

"I don't know!" Shiro sobbed. "It all happened so fast, none of us stood a chance. I still can't believe it, he was just one man...Why did those stupid guards have to attack him!?"

"What do you mean 'one man'?"

"Just like I s-said, one man did all this, with just the snap of his fingers, he blew the whole place up with an explosion so big, everyone was killed, and those who were farther away burst into flames instantly."

Haku was stunned speechless. One man had done this? That was impossible, all this damage from just the snap of his fingers. "The southern guards, they saw some red haired man just walking past the building and decided to mess with him." Shiro began, snapping Haku back to his senses. "He told them to just leave him alone, but they tried to attack him... then, he snapped his fingers and the whole place blew up... I was returning from the town when I was caught up the blast."

"That's enough, Shiro." Haku said, trying to calm the man down.

"I-I tried to look around, but everyone was already dead... H-Haku, please... just kill me." Shiro cried, pleading, making Haku flinch. He never liked killing humans, but he also knew that it would be crueler to leave him as he was, useless to the cause he had deserted his village, his family, everything, for. "P-please, Haku... I'm beg—"

Shiro's voice was cut off as his body was frozen solid, even his blood freezing, his heart stopping mid beat. Haku bowed, showing his respect for the man who had protected Zabuza as long as he had, before he pushed him over, closing his eyes when the body shattered upon hitting the floor. He turned, taking one last look at all the bodies before heading back to Zabuza.

When he neared Zabuza's body, Haku was glad that he still hadn't woken, since it would be hard to explain what had happened. Picking him up again, Haku jumped into the trees, his ice minions following carrying Zabuza's sword.

----- Tazuna's House -----

"Good night, Tazuna-san, Tsunami-san, thanks for the food and for letting us have your room." Sakura said, excusing herself, yawning as she climbed the stairs. It had been a little over an hour, so she was sure Naruto had to be asleep already. She passed the two other rooms, where the members of team eight were staying, since Tsunami had insisted that they take the rooms, meaning she and Inari would sleep with Tazuna in the living room.

When Sakura, entered the room, she confirmed that the two fox demons were sleeping before she looked at the floor, using the light from the hall to memorize how far the bed was and where everything was so that when she closed the door she wouldn't hit or have to feel around too much to find the bed. She also noticed that some of Naruto's wounds had begun to scab over, the smaller ones already beginning to close.

Shutting the door, she walked over to the futon and kneeled down, crawling into place. She had to stop herself from putting her head on Naruto's shoulder, not wanting to brush up against his wounds and accidentally cause him pain. She felt around for the pillow, pulling it so that she could lay her head on it before she felt Naruto snake one arm under her head, the other going around her waist, pulling her towards him.

"I thought I told you I wanted you asleep when I came back." Sakura said, sighing as she made herself comfortable against his arm and chest. She felt air leave his nose, tickling the skin of her shoulder, as he chuckled softly.

"I was sleepin', but I woke up a li'l when you were movin' on the bed." he mumbled, kissing her shoulder. He felt her smile against his arm before she kissed it, returning his affection.

Sakura stayed up a little longer, listening to Naruto's breathing slow down as she wondered how she could think someone that loved her so much would have tricked her into coming with him. And also about how since Naruto had said he couldn't lie to her, she shouldn't lie to him by not telling him about part of the reason she'd left with him. She just hoped it didn't make him think she didn't love him.

Unknown to her, Naruto was having a similar thought process as he pretended to be asleep.

He thought about how he was still hiding parts of his past from her, even though he'd promised to tell her everything truthfully. He'd skipped some parts of his past when he'd been telling her about himself, for fear that she might hate him for what had happened before. He swore to tell her about it as soon as he could, and hoped she would still want to be his mate afterwards.

However if she didn't, he would accept her wishes. After all, he'd purposely only half-marked her because he'd thought it was too soon, so that if she wanted to turn back, he'd let her. Cracking one eye open, he stared at the mark on her neck, blue and red instead of all red.

_'I'll finish it when we mate for the first time... if she stays with me that long.'_ he thought, finally letting sleep overtake him when he knew Sakura had done the same.

**To Be Continued...**

AN/ Wow. I'm finally done. That had to be the most I've ever spent writing a chapter. I started right after I finished 'Cursed' chapter 2 and, while I did take a six or seven month break, that was almost a year ago! Fuck, I feel so ashamed. I just hope this and any future chapters for all of my stories make up for it.

Now, I have... a few things to add, I guess. One, for Ryuk's image, I've decided on making him look more or less like Youko Kurama. I apologize to those who aren't familiar, but search up the name if you don't know who that is. Next, I've decided upon the demonic hand signs, and they'll most likely debut next chapter, seeing as I'm still trying to make them original and figure out how to describe them. Lastly, it's been a while but hopefully it still works. Please review.


	9. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Okay, I know technically I'm supposed to update _'Just Following Orders'_ or _'Cursed'_ before updating this again, but my computer was infected with a worm that made it inoperable. And since I was a good eight pages into _'Cursed'_ and I'm seriously thinking of rewriting _'Just Following Orders,' _I felt I should at least update this.

Disclaimer: NO! I'm not doing this no mores!

"Speech"

'_Thought'_

_**'Inner Sakura'**_

**"(Unimportant) Demon Speech"**

**Naruto Wandering Demon**

Chapter Eight: A Lesson in Demon History

After having spent the last two and a half years together, give or take a few months, Hinata had grown accustomed to waking up to find that her teammate was already awake, meditating on his futon, a few of his bugs flying noiselessly around him. It was actually a rather captivating sight, the bugs flying around his body—which was bare from the waist up, his coat folded near him, since he had stated it didn't allow him to meditate properly—dancing around aimlessly yet always perfectly synchronized with at least one other bug.

Shino's bushy dark brown hair was short, yet long enough that it reached his eyebrows if it wasn't held up by his headband. His body was lean, having been trained for mobility rather than strength seeing as his fighting style used mid to long range attacks; unless he kept his opponent occupied by swiftly maneuvering around them, keeping them focused on him long enough for his bugs to drain them of energy.

There were several holes spanning the length of the back of his arms, fifteen on each arm, and then continuing down the sides of his back where she assumed they kept going down his legs. The holes appeared to be metal rings that kept the skin from healing, though it would most likely have healed around it by now. They were odd in how no matter how they were positioned in the light, they appeared to have a constant shadow.

Hinata yawned as she sat up, stretching her arms up to awaken her muscles from their dormant state before looking around the room.

Kiba looked strange without his faithful companion curled up under his head. The fact that he had actually left Akamaru's side was a surprise, but considering how Kurenai had stayed in the living room waiting for Kiba to head upstairs before she came up herself, it wasn't unexpected. While Kiba would most likely have remained awake through the night worrying about Akamaru, he couldn't if it meant Kurenai would be deprived of sleep as well.

The sleeping teen was only slightly more muscular than Shino, his combat style perfectly blending swift unpredictable strikes with strong kicks, some of which required him to use his hands to support him as he executed them. It was a style he had created back during their second attempt at becoming Chuunin. She remembered feeling entranced the first time she'd seen him fight like that (she wasn't the only one she later found out); it was akin to watching someone break dance. His feet were never still for too long, used every so often so as to throw his opponent off balance, yet his hands never relented in their assault, swipes being followed by backhands if he missed and flip kicks and falling leg sweeps played a large role in his strategy .

Between Kiba's offensive abilities, Shino's distractions and her own defensive abilities, Hinata figured her team was the most well rounded out of their graduating year. The only reason they didn't receive as many missions that required combat was because Sakura's team was the strongest assault team, while hers came in close second, yet also being the best tracking and escort team. They were also the second best scouting and reconnaissance team, but team ten held first, if only slightly thanks to Shikamaru's ability to plan every move their enemy would make.

Hinata's attention was brought back to her meditating teammate when a rather large swarm of bugs came in through the open window, entering the brunette's body through the numerous holes that he had on his person, before another swarm came out, heading out the same way the previous had entered. Hinata followed the swarm with her eyes as it left, noting that it scattered once outside, most likely setting up a perimeter around their temporary base of operations.

"Good morning, Hinata-san." Shino greeted, standing up before reaching for his loose long sleeve shirt. Hinata turned her gaze back towards Shino, blushing slightly as she noticed how the muscles in his back moved as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"G-good morning, Shino-kun. How long have you been awake?" she asked, blushing harder when she accidentally averted her eyes towards Kiba, who was used to sleeping in nothing but his boxers if they weren't expecting to be attacked; which was often considering how many low rank missions they received. Shino's response was delayed as he searched for his sunglasses.

"About an hour, when Kurenai-sensei left to check on something that was bothering her." He answered, putting on his jacket after having found his glasses in one of the sleeves of his jacket. "I'm going downstairs, please wake Kiba up before you leave as well." Shino requested as he left the room.

Hinata blushed again, realizing she was left alone with a near naked Kiba, something she usually tried to avoid. She had a small crush on the Inuzuka, and she felt embarrassed being around him, seeing as he wasn't necessarily shy about anything.

Wanting to escape the room before she fainted, Hinata quickly pulled her own jacket on before walking over to Kiba. She shook him slightly, muttering for him to wake up as she did, barely waiting for him to fully regain his senses before running out of the room, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

* * *

In another room, Sakura was just waking up, having been slightly startled by a door slamming shut, when she felt something… warm and rough touching her somewhere that she only let one other person than herself touch. Looking down, she found that sometime during the night, Naruto's left hand had slipped up under her shirt, which was bunched around her rib cage, and was cupping her right breast softly.

The rosette simply sighed and tried to get as comfortable as she could, having gotten used to the fact that every time she woke up, one of Naruto's hands was either in her shirt, or if they were sleeping face to face, cupping one of her ass cheeks. Naruto swore he didn't consciously do it and she believed him. Besides, they were mates which meant she was his, and, even though it had only happened _once_, she had woken up with her hand touching a certain part of him that she had yet to see with her eyes even if she'd felt it through their clothes.

However, when she felt his hand give her a small squeeze before happily muttering something that was mostly incoherent besides a barely recognizable 'Sakura-chan,' she reached up and removed his trespassing hand before sitting up, yawning. She glanced around, finding Shadow gone, before landing on Naruto's form. She frowned, noticing that his wounds weren't healed like he'd said they'd be. In fact, they looked almost the same as when she'd returned the previous night, only having healed to the point where they didn't look like they'd bleed unless he overexerted himself.

With a large sigh, she got up to go downstairs and get the backpack she'd left the night before, but Naruto's voice made her pause.

"Sakura-chan, where you going?" came the blond's voice, sounding like a kid who'd had their blanket taken away. Sakura turned towards him and smiled when she saw that he was reaching around with his right arm, his eyes still closed, trying to pull her back onto the futon.

"I'm going to get some clothes, I left our stuff downstairs." She answered, opening the door when his hand stopped its futile attempt at finding her. Well, futile wasn't the right word. Sakura was sure that if he'd really wanted her to lie back down, she would have. After all, she loved the safe, warm and comfortable feeling she got when they laid in each others embrace, something they usually did in the mornings for a few minutes as they muttered sweet nothings to each other.

"Stay still, your wounds still haven't healed." Sakura stated when she saw that he was going to get up as well. He sat halfway up before he clutched his stomach grunting in pain.

"What the fuck? Why aren't my wounds healed?" Naruto whined, though the rosette could tell he was honestly worried. She then watched as he, for some reason or another, poked his wound before once again wincing in pain. "Ow… that hurts…"

"Of course it's going to hurt, it hasn't healed yet. Did you think it would magically heal it if you touched it?" Sakura asked, shaking her head, her face in her palm.

"I don't believe it, my wounds aren't healed." He muttered, looking at her, a worried expression on his face. "This has never happened before; my wounds always heal after sleeping for a few hours." Naruto was obviously panicked. Sakura was about to say something but Shadow chose that moment to jump in through the window, a dead rabbit in his mouth.

"God damn, you're so loud. My prey almost got away because it turned around when it heard you whining and saw me." Shadow grumbled, letting the rabbit drop to the floor with a thud. "Now what are you whining about?"

Naruto turned towards Shadow, pointing at the wounds on his chest. "Shadow, my wounds haven't healed yet! What the hell's going on?" he shouted loud enough that Sakura was sure the whole house heard him. Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"Didn't we just talk about this yesterday; the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū have swords created specifically to fight demons. Is your brain too small to remember that or did it finally die from lack of oxygen due to your make out sessions with Pinky over there." Shadow once again proved he couldn't go five minutes around them without slipping out an insult.

"Stop calling me that!" Sakura yelled, agitated at the nickname. Shadow merely ignored her, rolling his yellow eyes.

Naruto thought back to his conversation with Shadow the previous evening before laughing sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. Guess I was too busy freaking out to remember." Naruto admitted, scratching the top of his head. Sakura arched an eyebrow as she turned towards him.

"So your wounds haven't healed because of Zabuza's sword?" she asked, receiving a nod from the two fox demons; one still laughing lightly while the other glared at the first. "So how long should it take to heal then?"

"I don't know," Naruto began, any worry or concern gone from his voice, instead replaced with amusement, "but this means I get to lie around and be lazy until they heal. When was the last time I got to do that?" Naruto asked Shadow, a grin on his face and his hands folded behind his head. Shadow actually seemed to think on that.

"I think… it was about three months ago; the last time we met the old pervert, right?"

"I don't know." Naruto shrugged. "Probably."

"Yeah, I think so, that was when he was writing his last book—"

"—Oh, you mean when he tried to learn the demon hand signs I knew of?"

"Demon hand signs?" Sakura asked, interested but her question was drowned out by Shadow's response.

"Wait was that the same time we exposed him while he was peeping on the wind daimyo's niece and the guards chased him around the village for, like, two hours?"

"Yeah, don't they still have wanted posters of him around wind country for that?"

"Who's still wanted?" Sakura tried again, but once again Shadow's response drowned her out. She was starting to get annoyed.

"No, that's from when he actually mated with the girl."

"He didn't mate with her… did he?"

"Why do you think he left so fast the next day?"

"He always leaves us with the hot spring bill!"

"Because you fucking always let him!"

"Guys?" Sakura said, opening the door, ready to leave if they ignored her.

"I've never seen you try to stop him." Naruto smirked when Shadow didn't say otherwise before turning at the sound of the door closing. "Sakura-chan?"

"Someone's in trouble." Shadow mocked as he picked up his rabbit and jumped out the window.

Naruto merely shrugged, deciding to wait for Sakura since she'd need him to unseal her clothing. _'Hn. Maybe I should teach her how to use seals, that way she won't have to rely on me to get her own clothes.'_ Thought the blond as he waited, his eyebrow arching as he felt a familiar chakra signature nearby. "Hey, Ero-sennin's around."

* * *

"Good morning, Sakura-san." Hinata greeted as the rosette walked down the stairs. The Hyuuga heiress was currently sitting in the kitchen, sharpening her kunai with Tsunami's knife sharpener, while Kiba was sitting near Akamaru, scratching the nin-dog's head. Sakura reached for Naruto's backpack before turning towards the lavender eyed girl.

"Good morning, Hinata, Kiba." —("Hey, Sakura." Kiba replied, not looking at the pink haired girl.)—"Where's everyone else?"

"Shino-kun is accompanying Tazuna-san and Tsunami-san into town to get some groceries and Inari-san is upstairs." Hinata answered, replacing her current kunai with a new one. "Is Naruto-dono still sleeping?"

"Um, no." Sakura paused as she thought of a reason for why Naruto's wounds wouldn't be healed even after using his mother's healing cream. "He's awake but it turns out that his wounds were too big to heal right away. He has to rest for a while."

"I hope his injuries heal soon." Hinata said, putting away her kunai and placing the knife sharpener back on the hook above the sink. She then picked up a plate that had something square wrapped in paper towels. "Sakura-san, here;" Hinata called, bringing the plate to the other girl as she was about to ascend back up the stairs, "Tsunami-san made some sandwiches for everyone, these are for you and Naruto."

Sakura thanked her, shifting Naruto's backpack on her shoulders, before taking the plate and returning up the stairs. Along the way she passed Inari's room, the loud music that suddenly started making her jump slightly and almost drop the plate she was carrying. The music lowered in volume as she began walking again, allowing her to hear the conversation taking place inside the room Naruto was in.

"I told you, he's busy hunting down a pair of demons right now, he sent me to say 'hi,' and to apologize for not being able to visit you, but that maybe he'll come by if he has time." The person sounded annoyed, as if it had been telling Naruto the same thing a few times but the blond wouldn't listen. Which Sakura didn't doubt.

"But I have a new demon hand sign to show him. I'm sure if you tell him that, he'll come over as fast as his old legs'll take him—without breaking his hip." The unknown person laughed apparently so hard that they stomped on the floor lightly if the sound she heard was any indication. "Sakura-chan, what are you doing out there; is the door stuck?"

Sakura opened the door with a slight blush of embarrassment at being caught spying on Naruto as he talked to… _'Wait, who the hell was Naruto talking to?'_

"Sakura-chan, meet Gamakichi." Naruto said, as if reading her mind. Sakura however was confused. There was no one in the room other than them. Not even Shadow was there. She was about to voice her confusion when a small orange frog hopped out of the pile of clothes in the corner, something she hadn't noticed the previous night.

"What's up?" it said, half saluting her.

With a shriek, Sakura threw the plate towards the frog; however Naruto managed to catch it and the sandwiches it held.

"Hey, cool; sandwiches." Naruto exclaimed happily as he placed the bowl on the floor before unwrapping one, offering some to the orange frog, who gladly accepted.

"Thanks, Naruto." The frog said as it grabbed some of the bread and stuffed it in its mouth. Naruto grinned before taking a bite himself.

"No problem." Sakura couldn't believe Naruto was talking and sharing a sandwich with a frog as if it was a kid.

"Naruto… you're talking to a frog." She said blankly. Gamakichi however took offense.

"Hey, I'm a toad!" that only made Sakura let the shiver she'd been holding escape. Naruto of course noticed and a mischievous smile spread over his face.

"Sakura-chan, are you afraid of toads?" Naruto asked, the smile never leaving his face. Sakura blushed for the second time in two minutes.

"N-not afraid… more like grossed out." She admitted, sitting on her knees next to Naruto. Gamakichi huffed. "Where'd it come from, anyways? Is it a toad demon?"

Naruto lifted the frog by the back of the small blue jacket it wore. "A toad demon? I don't think so." Naruto answered, keeping the toad raised in front of his face. Gamakichi kicked Naruto on the nose, making the blond let go of him.

"I am a summon, thank you." Gamakichi stated, straightening out his jacket. He then turned to Naruto. "Anyways, Naruto, I've gotta go. I'll tell the old man what you said, but I'm telling you he's kind of hell bent on finding those two demons." Upon finishing his statement, Gamakichi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Once the orange toad was gone, Sakura turned towards Naruto, who was finishing his sandwich. "Who was he talking about, Naruto?" she asked, swatting his hand away from the second sandwich. "Leave that one alone, I haven't eaten yet."

"Ero-sennin's around here somewhere, though he sent Gamakichi to say he probably won't be able to visit me himself." Naruto answered, rubbing his hand. "Ero-sennin's the one who taught me about seals, and I search for demon hand signs for him."

Sakura reached for her sandwich before she noticed what the blond had said. "Wait—what do you mean you 'search for demon hand signs for him'?" it didn't make sense; why would he have to search for demon hand signs? Naruto simply smiled.

"Oh, yeah, I never explained demon hand signs to you, did I?" he asked, already knowing the answer. That didn't stop Shadow from answering as he hopped onto the windowsill.

"Is your memory so bad that you don't remember what you have and haven't told your mate?" Shadow asked, smirking. Naruto turned towards the fox, glaring.

"I don't have a bad memory; I'm just forgetful sometimes." Naruto retorted making the black fox raise an eyebrow, about to say something. "Shut up!"

"I was just going to say that you should explain our hand signs to your mate before she strangles you." Shadow said, amused when Naruto turned to notice that Sakura was beginning to get annoyed.

"Oh! Sakura-chan, I'm sorry about that. Um, uh… Where was I?"

"You haven't started yet." Sakura answered, watching his face light up into an, 'oh yeah,' expression.

"Well, it's like this; Demon hand signs are like Human hand signs, only they're not." He said, trying to find the right way of explaining, making Sakura's face adopt a 'No, really?' expression. "I mean, you guys know all your hand signs, but Demon hand signs are old practices, mostly forgotten by a majority of the demon population. Apparently—from what I was told by other demons, and Ero-sennin—Demons were the original users of hand signs, using them to fight each other, usually leaving humans alone. They found them too inferior to waste time on, as always."

"But," Shadow took over, "it was from those few demons that did attack humans that the humans learned of, mimicked and later after learning that most couldn't use them that they created their own hand signs."

"And that's how your bird-rat-monkey hand signs came to be." Sakura's eyebrow twitched as she watched Naruto perform butchered versions of the hand signs she was accustomed to using. "And those humans were the first ninja."

"I know that already." She stated, eyes narrowed. "I asked why you're searching for demon hand signs, not an academy review." Even though she said that, it wasn't entirely exactly as she was taught. As a child, they were taught demons attacked humans relentlessly, using their demonic hand signs which humans soon recreated to use against them. "And what's wrong with the bird, rat and monkey hand signs?" she asked, demonstrating the correct way of performing the hand signs, almost tempted to complete the small genjutsu that began in that order.

"Nothing really but compared to Aries," his hands formed a foreign hand sign where the back of his fingers touched before forking at the knuckles, his thumbs bent to form arches, "Libra," another foreign hand sign, this time simpler with one hand fisted above the back of the other, "and Cancer they sound kind of weird." The last hand sign had both of his hand clenched into fists with the thumbs outstretched over the knuckle of the other hand.

Sakura's eyebrows shot up when she heard the names. "A-Aries, Libra and Cancer? As in, from the Zodiac?" she asked, voice filled with disbelief. There were theories about how demon hand signs worked, and among those was that the twelve signs of the Zodiac were their hand signs, which would explain the myths of A-class Demons having near limitless Chakra supplies. They didn't just have Spiritual and physical energy making their Chakra, they had _cosmic_ energy feeding most of their attacks.

Naruto's eyebrow knit together in thought. "Uh… I think so." He said uncertainly. "The Zodiac's the bunch of constellations, right?" he asked, making Sakura stare at him incredulously. "Hey, I just know the names; I don't know what they're named after or why."

"Anyways, you probably know how humans began hunting down demons that were known to attack humans. And though humans didn't have as much Chakra, they had mastered their own Chakra and perfected their Chakra control, unlike demons that simply made a hand sign and pushed out enough Chakra to produce an effect. Pretty soon, humans began to hunt all demons, though they focused mostly on those that knew how to perform demonic hand signs.

"Some demons began to fear humans, and most refused to learn the demonic hand signs. As time went on, humans had killed every master of demonic hand signs, leaving only demons that had just begun learning. Most of these demons had barely mastered one or two hand signs, and immediately hid from humans. Humans continued to hunt demons until eventually only a handful remained that still knew how to use specific hand signs."

"Some say that a few of the hand signs have been lost since the last demons to know how to use them died." Naruto added, going through his hand signs, one which Sakura hadn't seen yet. "I know four hand signs so far, but that still leaves…" Naruto looked down at his hands as he began naming all the hand signs he'd been told about, counting with his fingers as he did so, "eight right?" he asked Shadow.

"Very good, Master, your math skills are improving. You can finally count to eight." Shadow responded, making Naruto glare at him.

"I'm going to kick your ass when I heal."

"That would require that you actually be able to catch me." Shadow stated, sounding as though he were explaining something to a child.

"Or I could just outsmart you with a trap or something."

The resulting thud made when Shadow fell off the windowsill from laughing too hard drew Sakura's attention back to the two fox demons in the room with her. She had begun ignoring them when they began arguing, _again_. _'I'm starting to get tired of these two constantly fighting.' _She thought, finishing her sandwich as she watched Naruto looking for something to throw at the black fox.

A knock at the door interrupted the blond's search for anything to hit Shadow with.

"Sakura-san, Kurenai-san wants to know if you two would be able come down." Tsunami's voice came through the door. Naruto glanced over towards Sakura, an eyebrow arched questioningly. Sakura shrugged at him.

"Tell her I'll be down just as soon as I change but I don't think Naruto can co—"

"We'll be down in a minute." Naruto interrupted her. "You wouldn't happen to have any bandages, would you?" He asked, receiving a quick, 'Yeah,' before they heard Tsunami's footsteps as she walked away. The blond turned to smile at Sakura only to notice her glare. "What?"

"What do you mean, 'what?'" she snapped, making Naruto flinch slightly. "You're in no condition to go down there!" she half yelled, half whispered. She couldn't help but sigh, however, when she saw his ears flatten to his head, reminding her of a sad puppy. "Fine, just unseal some clothes for me real quick." she grabbed his backpack and pulled out the seals inside. She couldn't really tell one from the other.

Naruto grinned, grabbed one of the seals with his left hand while pressings his thumb against one of his sharp canines, causing blood to slide down his thumb, before spreading it over the seal. A cloud of white smoke irrupted almost instantly above the seal before fading away to reveal a few sets of clothes Sakura had already prepared so as not to spend so much time deciding which shirt would match with which pants or shorts or skirt.

She picked a light blue sleeveless shirt with a pair of light green bicycle shorts and a light yellow skirt. She never liked wearing a skirt without shorts seeing as she did a lot of flipping and jumping as a ninja. Certain that Naruto was too busy making another seal to store the rest of her clothes, save a pair for later, she changed quickly. The couple finished what they were doing just as Tsunami returned with the bandages.

Naruto performed a quick henge as Sakura went to open the door, making her wonder why sometimes his henge released smoke and why sometimes it didn't. "Thank you, Tsunami-san." The rosette said as the elder woman handed her some wrapping gauze and some alcohol before leaving. Leaving the door open, she turned towards Naruto. "Alright, sit up straight, would you?"

Naruto did as he was told, his grin still in place, wondering what it would be like to be wrapped like a mummy. He pictured it in his head; himself wrapped head to toe in gauze, walking around with his arms raised in front of him. _'Wait a minute; if I'm wrapped in from head to toe, how will I eat?_' he thought to himself. _'Do mummies have holes for their mouths? Do they even eat? How will I eat ramen? How will I talk?'_

Sakura, oblivious to Naruto's thought process, ripped a small piece of gauze and splashed some alcohol onto it before dabbing Naruto's wounds with it. The result was instantaneous. Naruto let out a cry of pain and moved away from Sakura's hand, falling onto his back, his gaze fixed on her.

"What the fuck was that?" he asked, making Sakura stare at him strangely. Then it hit her.

"Naruto, don't tell me you've never used alcohol?" she asked disbelievingly. _'Do his wounds really usually heal so fast that he never needed to treat them?' _she thought, watching as Naruto thought for a second.

"No." he answered quickly enough. "Is that what you just touched me with?" when she nodded his gaze shifted from her face to her hand still holding the damp gauze. He then let out a sigh. "Holy crap that stings." He said, moving towards Sakura again. Said girl merely splashed some more alcohol onto the damp fabric before touching it to his wounds again.

Sakura was impressed at how well Naruto handled the sting of alcohol. She knew it was something that could be painful when one wasn't used to it. Besides a few hisses he wasn't protesting. Though the way she felt his muscles tighten under her hand, she knew he was biting back a few more hisses. After she was done cleaning the last, and largest, wound she wrapped him in the gauze, making sure it wasn't too tight. The whole process took less than three minutes.

"Alright, Naruto, We're done." Sakura stated, getting up and stretching. Naruto followed suit, minus the stretching, running his hand over the bandages. "Come on, they're waiting for us downstairs." The blond nodded following her down to the living room clad only in his pants, his henge still activated, while Sakura fixed her shorts, as they had ridden down slightly.

"Took you two long enough." Kiba stated when they descended into the living room. He saw Sakura fixing her skirt and took in Naruto's appearance before smirking lecherously. "Don't tell me you two were having a quickie?" he asked, making Sakura glare at him.

'_What's a quickie?'_ Naruto thought, sitting next to Sakura on the couch, which meant he was also sitting next to Tsunami, whose cheeks were tinted in the smallest pink hue. Kurenai, who was sitting in between Kiba and Hinata on the smaller couch—(Kiba was sitting on the armrest of the couch, rubbing the back of his head as Kurenai had once again hit him.)—cleared her throat.

"As you all remember, yesterday we fought Zabuza and he was taken by a Kiri Oinin." She waited for everyone to nod before she continued. "Does anyone know what crucial mistake we made?"

"Letting that bastard take Zabuza's body?" Naruto mumbled, making Sakura tighten her grip on his hand that was interlocked with hers.

"Naruto!" the rosette chastised, only to have Kurenai interrupt her.

"Actually, that is exactly where we messed up. What is the job of an Oinin?" Kurenai asked. Of course Sakura answered.

"To track down and eliminate Ronin, taking their heads as proof of accomplishing their jobs before cremating the bodies on…" Sakura's eyes widened, "on site…" Everyone but Naruto had the same realization.

"That Oinin was a fake!" Kiba shouted angrily, turning towards Kurenai for confirmation. When she nodded the brown haired boy let out an aggravated growl.

"Does that mean th-that Zabuza is still alive?" Hinata asked nervously. She did not look forward to fighting the Kiri Ronin again. They had barely escaped with their lives the first time.

"Most likely that is the case." Shino said from his position near the bottom of the stairs, leaning against the wall. "However he probably won't be alone the next time."

Kurenai nodded. "Most likely the Oinin impostor will be accompanying him. However strong he may be, Zabuza is still the main obstacle. He is a master of stealth killing, the basis of which is to impair the senses. Whether that's by using genjutsu to mislead your senses or mist to make visibility bad. If you want to hold your own against Zabuza you'll need to train to fight with zero visibility."

"Not Hinata, she's lucky, she has the Byakugan." Kiba said, pouting. The blushing girl was about to say something when Kurenai interrupted her.

"I'm afraid that so long as it's Chakra created mist even she will have to train to fight without her eyes."

"What if Naruto uses his wind Jutsu again?" Sakura questioned. To her it seemed like the logical choice to simply blast away the mist again. Kurenai shook her head.

"While that would be the simplest way, we can't rely too much on Naruto helping us throughout the entire fight as we can assume Zabuza won't be alone if he returns. Everyone might be busy with their own opponents." Kurenai explained calmly. "At the same time, we don't know how many he'll bring with him. I could be one person or it could be an entire ninja squad. Even demons are a possibility."

When everyone realized how much thought Kurenai had given this they couldn't help but be impressed. Well, almost everyone.

"And what if he doesn't come back at all?" Naruto asked slowly, his voice coming out in an 'ever thought of that,' tone. Shino shifted his weight off of the wall he was leaning on.

"In that case we shall consider ourselves very fortunate to learn how to fight against assassination specialists without having to fight one in the near future." The hooded shinobi said, pushing his shades up his nose. "So when will our training begin, Kurenai-sensei?"

Kurenai glanced at Kiba and Hinata, who both wore looks of determination on their faces. "There is a clearing not five minutes from here, meet me there in four." The Jounin ordered, about to leave before she turned towards Naruto and Sakura. "Though I don't know how much training you might need, or even be able to do," an obvious reference towards Naruto's condition, "feel free to join us."

Shino followed Kurenai out of the house towards the clearing, leaving a few insects to guide the rest. Kiba sighed, glancing at Akamaru's resting form in the corner of the room before beginning to put on his sandals. Hinata got up to follow her brown haired teammate, halting at the doorway.

"Are you two going to come with us?" the lavender eyed teen asked, waiting by the doorway for an answer, Kiba a few paces in front of her but also waiting. Naruto turned to Sakura, a large grin on his face.

"Sakura-chan, let's go—"

"No." Sakura cut him off, squeezing his hand when he tried to pull it away.

"Why not?" Naruto whined, making Sakura glare at him lightly.

"You can barely walk, and you want to go train?" Sometimes Sakura wondered if Naruto thought things over. _'I do kind of want to train, though. It's been a while since I practiced any of my Jutsu.' _

Said blond was not going to give up. "I promise I'll just sit down and watch everyone else train." Naruto pleaded, big blue puppy dog eyes looking into Sakura's green ones.

'_Damn it, who knew Naruto was better at using puppy dog eyes than Ino.'_ Sakura thought to herself before caving in. "Fine," Naruto let out a victory yell, his hand finally free of Sakura's grip, "but if I see you try to join in on the training," she moved so her mouth was close to where his ear would be if he were human, knowing he'd hear her whisper, "I'll make you regret being a man."

Naruto shivered as he felt her warm breath against his face. Suddenly he felt a chill as Sakura moved away to put on her shoes. _'Shadow's right;'_ thought the blond, heart pounding blood into his cheeks, _'if I'm not careful, Sakura will have me wrapped around her finger.'_ He was snapped out of his musings when he noticed Sakura was calling him. "What was that?"

"I said hurry up and put on your shoes, Kiba and Hinata are already late." Sakura repeated, standing a few feet away from Naruto. Naruto grinned as he stood up slowly, stretching slightly.

"My shoes are upstairs but I'm not going to put them on. I'm used to walking around barefoot; I actually like the feeling of grass under my feet." Naruto responded, smiling. Sakura figured there was nothing wrong with that seeing as she knew a few people who walked around barefoot from time to time.

* * *

The group arrived at the clearing a few minutes later, guided by Shino's bugs, after leaving Shadow behind to guard the house much to Tsunami's joy seeing as she found the jet black fox rather cute. Shino and Kurenai were in the middle of the field, which was rather large, the younger wearing a blindfold, trying to dodge Kurenai's attacks.

It seemed Shino was doing well, dodging every single one of Kurenai's attacks until she dropped down and performed a sweeping kick, knocking the teen to the floor.

"Remember to listen to the sound your opponents footsteps make when he runs towards you, the way the dirt gets disrupted as he shifts his weight around and the way the his clothing rustles in the wind as he attacks." Kurenai stated, lifting Shino off the ground. "This is something most spend years training to learn and, if they're lucky, master."

"I can see why; it's easy to hear your footsteps as you run, but listening to the way the earth crunches as you shift around while trying to concentrate on hearing your clothing move in the wind…" Shino dodged a punch and the backhand that followed but was caught by a kick aim for the side of his head.

"Trying to concentrate on listening to any of those separately in the middle of a fight is hard enough, but you must learn to listen to them at the same time and combine them in your mind to create a mental picture and still react. All of that has to happen almost instantly." Shino got up shakily as Kurenai turned to the newly arrived group. "Kiba, take over for me, spar with Shino as you normally would." Kurenai ordered, walking over to pick up another blindfold. "After twenty minutes, you're to switch roles."

"Hai." Kiba said, running over towards Shino before dropping into his signature fighting stance. The rest watched as Kiba attacked Shino, his unpredictable hits landing far more often than Kurenai's.

"Which one of you girls wants to be blindfolded first?" Kurenai asked, walking over towards the group of three, ignoring Shino's grunts as he was struck. Neither of the girls seemed too willing to volunteer. "Alright, Hinata, you go first." Hinata took the blindfold and tied it around her eyes. "You can't use your Kekkei Genkai."

Hinata nodded as she dropped into a defensive stance in front of Kurenai.

"Sakura's going to be your sparring partner, not me." Kurenai explained, causing Sakura to stiffen. Hinata nodded again before turning towards the pink haired girl. "Sakura you need to attack Hinata as if she weren't wearing a blindfold. If you go easy on her, she won't be able to keep up in a real fight."

Sakura understood what the Jounin was saying, however she was still hesitant. '_This seems a bit advanced for us beginners.'_ She thought, glancing towards the two boys on the other side of the field, cringing as Shino was hit with a rather strong kick in the ribs. From his expression, even Kiba felt he should take it easy.

'_**If he takes it easy on Shino, then he won't learn. It's like when a baby bird is made to leave the nest. Even though it could die, if it doesn't it won't learn to fly.'**_ Inner Sakura said, making Sakura sigh inwardly.

'_I guess that's true.'_ She looked at Hinata who was still waiting, nervous as to when the first hit would come. Sakura dropped into her fighting stance. _'Here goes then.'

* * *

_

Naruto flinched as he saw Sakura get her feet swept from underneath her by Hinata's kick. The group of teenagers had been training for just over two hours, stopping every forty minutes for a quick breather. Kurenai would leave to check on Tazuna and his family every once in a while. In that time, he had watched the four teenage ninja beat each other reluctantly.

'_They're not really getting much better…'_ thought the blond, biting his lip to quell the instinct to protect his mate. _'She's just training, and her partner's punches don't seem particularly strong.'_ He told himself, though it didn't help much. He was starting to regret asking to join them.

"Alright, that's enough for today." Kurenai shouted, returning from her last trip to Tazuna's house. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and was about to walk over to Sakura when he noticed there was someone watching them from the bushes to his left. He turned, trying to figure out who it was.

The scent was male, but not that of an adult male. It was familiar, as if he had smelt that particular scent before, but he couldn't remember where. _'I know it was recently, but…'_ no matter how hard he concentrated he couldn't peg the scent to someone. When a soft breeze brought more of the person's smell towards him, his eyes narrowed in further confusion. _'This scent isn't human.'_

"Naruto." Sakura called, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Let's go back to Tazuna-san's house. Everyone left already." She said, smiling as she panted from exhaustion. Even though she'd been beaten during the training, she had clearly enjoyed it, if her smile was any indication.

"Alright." Naruto responded, still glancing towards the person in the bushes as he got up.

Sakura raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was looking at. She turned in the same direction he was and felt for any chakra signature in the area, surprised when she detected someone. She knew who it was, however. "Inari-kun?" she called out, not receiving any sort of answer until the preteen boy walked out of the bushes. "Where you watching us train?"

"And what if I was?" the raven haired boy asked rudely, cocking his head to the side. Sakura smiled lightly.

"You thinking about becoming a ninja?" the rosette asked, oblivious to the way Naruto's eyes narrowed when Inari smirked.

"After your pathetic excuse of a training exercise?" Inari laughed mockingly. "Hell no. You guys suck."

Sakura nearly exploded in anger. "What did you say you little twerp!" she yelled, emerald eyes aflame with killing intent. Right when she was about to move to strangle the boy however, Naruto's hand stretched out in front of her.

"Sakura-chan, let's go. It's not a good idea to attack the client's family." Naruto said, trying to keep his amused expression up. Sakura, however, was not one to let someone insult her.

"I don't care if he was the client; I'm going to kick his ass!" Sakura shouted, only to freeze at the look Naruto gave her. The seriousness in his eyes didn't scare her, but it made her feel the same way she did when the Hokage had glared at her when she had tried to refuse working with Kabuto's team on a joint mission a few months ago. She felt as though her superior was demanding she do something, and she was to obey.

Stunned by the feeling, she nodded slowly, calming some when Naruto smiled again and placed his arm around her shoulders, leading them away from the clearing.

'_What was that feeling?_' Sakura mentally asked herself, trying to figure out what had just happened. Inner Sakura, also at a loss, merely shrugged.

"Sakura-chan… That boy was Tsunami's son, right?" Naruto asked, receiving a nod from his mate. The sigh that followed made her raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Why? What's wrong?" she questioned, looking up at him.

"He's not human." The answer made Sakura stop walking, which in turn made Naruto stop as well. "I didn't feel it at first, but back in the clearing he let some of his Chakra out. It wasn't a lot, but it was dense." Naruto turned his gaze towards the direction of the clearing. "It was the Chakra of a high C-class demon."

"If it's just C-class why did we leave? A Chuunin can handle a C-class and I know you can handle a B-class no prob—"

"His Chakra was rich with lust, Sakura-chan. It took everything I had to walk away; my instincts were telling me to rip him to pieces." He admitted, noting the worried look on her face. "Not my demon instincts;" he reassured her, smiling before leading her towards a tree, placing her back against it, caressing her face with his hand, "my instincts as a mate."

If Sakura had a question it was lost as he pressed his lips to hers, her eyes widening slightly at the sudden action. Emerald orbs closed as she felt Naruto's tongue glide across her lips before she opened them, letting the pink muscle slip into her mouth. One of her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling his face closer to hers, increasing the intensity of the kiss while the other moved over his back, careful not to untangle his bandages.

Noting that the air coming out of her nose was becoming ragged Naruto broke the kiss, pulling back from the swollen pair of lips that continued to seek his, unwilling to separate. The blond couldn't help but grin, speaking between kisses. "Sakura-chan… you can barely… breathe." He pointed out, chuckling against her lips. Figuring she wouldn't stop to catch her breath herself, he trailed kisses across her chin, continuing down her neck before he clamped his lips on her collarbone, working on giving her a hickey, receiving moans from the rosette.

Sakura used this time to catch her breath, moving the hand of the arm she had around his neck to run her fingers through his blonde locks, circling around his fox ears, gaining a low growl from him. She smiled at him when he pulled back, calm sapphire eyes meeting playful emerald ones. Of course she knew what had made him pull back, he wanted her to stop touching around his ears and actually grab them.

Naruto's silent request was fulfilled when Sakura lightly fisted his ear, rolling it in her hand as she pulled him up to her face. Once they were at eye level Sakura leaned forward, intending to reinitiate their make out session but Naruto surprised her by placing his hands on her ass, under her skirt, before lifting her up slightly, enough so that their pelvises were in contact.

The squeal that came out of Sakura before her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist made Naruto forget about the fact that she had clenched her fist around his ear.

The initial shock of being hoisted up passing, Sakura couldn't help the blush that spread across her cheeks, not due to embarrassment, but rather from realization of their position. With her legs wrapped around his waist, his pelvis being pressed against hers allowing her to feel the bulge in his pants, she suddenly became aware of the fact that they were against a tree almost directly in front of the house.

"N-Naruto, why don't we stop now?" the question came out as a mix between a plead and a statement; though whether it was for him or herself, she didn't know. The way the blond stared at her, his eyes a combination of worry and apprehension, made her wonder what could have possibly caused the sudden shift in his emotions. "What's wrong?"

Naruto didn't say anything, he merely tilt his head up and pressed his lips against Sakura's forehead, making the rosette blush as she continued to observe him. "Sakura-chan, your kisses calm me down more than when my mother used to sing to me." He whispered softly before kissing her gently.

He knew he was confusing her with his constant mood swings, even if he wasn't outwardly displaying them, but he'd been contemplating whether or not to tell her that he had almost lost control of his body, a different voice than usual compelling him to claim her right then and there; to assert his role as her mate.

Instead he chose to talk about his mother, a topic he'd never fully enlightened her about. The one time she'd asked, he'd answered as best he could without actually answering. She'd apparently understood it was a touchy subject and changed the direction of their conversation.

"Alright, I'm going but I know Shino's cheating; _no one_ is that good at janken!" Kiba's voice came from their right, making them turn in time to see the brown haired teen close the door. When he spotted them, however, he froze, eyes wide as ramen bowls—well, at least Naruto's ramen bowls—and face red as the tattoos on his cheeks.

The young Inuzuka's strange behavior made Sakura raise an eyebrow. _'What the hell's wrong with him?'_ she thought, glancing around before she noticed just what it was. _'Oh, Kami-sama, no!'_ she buried her face in Naruto's shoulder in embarrassment. She and Naruto had never separated from their final position; her hands were still around his neck, her legs had remained around his waist and their pelvises were still in full contact with one another's. Not to mention he was still holding her up by her ass.

"Naruto, put me down." Sakura whispered, trying not to look towards Kiba, whom she knew had let his perverted mind wander. Naruto complied, confused as to why she had suddenly seemed as if she was trying to hide. Turning back towards the brunet, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on.

Still frozen in place, Kiba couldn't help the blood that trickled down his upper lip. It was easily the most awkward moment he'd ever experienced. He couldn't believe he'd come across Naruto and Sakura _doing it_! At least, that's how it appeared to the young Inuzuka, seeing as how all he had seen was a pair of flustered teens against a tree, Naruto's hands under Sakura's skirt (He didn't know she had her shorts on, seeing as they'd risen up her thighs), while said girl had her legs wrapped around the blond's waist. No other explanation seemed to fit the way he'd found them.

Snapping out of the trance he'd been in, wiping the blood from his face in the process, Kiba turned around, noting that the two had separated, Naruto looking at him while Sakura fixed herself. "Uh, I-I forgot something inside." Kiba said as he opened the door and entered the house, ignoring the looks of confusion his teammates directed at him for returning so soon.

Outside Sakura was still trying to get over the embarrassment of being caught in an intimate moment with her mate. She briefly wondered why Naruto appeared completely calm, like it didn't matter to him.

"Wonder what the hell was wrong with him?" Naruto spoke out loud, folding his arms behind his head. "The way he reacted you'd think he caught someone mating." He looked down at her grinning only to notice the blush that spread across her face. "Wait—don't tell me…" he trailed off, his grin growing in amusement.

"I-I think he thought he did." Sakura replied, her embarrassment returning full force. Naruto couldn't contain the laughter that resulted from the new information, though he stopped when he noticed Sakura's glare. "Let's just go inside." She suggested, walking towards the house with Naruto following behind her.

Before they walked inside, however, the door opened and Tazuna ran out, pulling Kiba with him, as Tsunami came to the doorway, yelling;

"—they're here doesn't mean you can be lazy and make them run your errands!" Tsunami shouted, waving a metal spoon in the direction her father was running. Noticing the two out of the corner of her eye, the raven haired woman couldn't help but blush slightly. "Oh, hey. Where have you two been?" she asked, obviously implying something.

"Walking." Naruto answered, sparing Sakura from trying to avoid the older woman's mischievous gaze. "Where are those two going?" he asked, pointing in the direction of the two retreating backs of Kiba and Tazuna. Tsunami continued to stare at Sakura, a knowing smile on her face.

She'd been washing dishes when she happened to look out the window, the only window with a view in their direction, and had seen them as they began their make out session. Though she'd told herself it was wrong to spy on them, and had even closed the small curtains, she had been unable to stop herself from constantly peeking at them. She'd been so engrossed in peeping on the two she'd almost missed when her father tried to send one of the ninja to do something he could do himself.

"One of the helpers we were supposed to pick up had a small emergency and decided to meet us here." Kurenai explained, walking past the doorway while toweling her hair. "He called a few minutes ago saying that he was here but didn't know how to get here. Kiba and Shino must've played janken, though, seeing as Kiba hates doing simple things like that."

"Is there a ramen stand in the village?" Naruto said, receiving an arched eyebrow from Sakura. Tsunami nodded, unsure why he'd ask about something like that. Before any of them blinked, Naruto had already begun sprinting towards the direction the two males had gone. "I think I should go with them!" He shouted before he disappeared.

Sakura sighed, mad at the blond for continuing to move around without any concern for his condition but knowing he was probably already too far for her to catch up to him. _'At least they're just going to pick someone up._' She thought, walking into the house to take a shower.

* * *

Naruto was rubbing his ear, though to Kiba and Tazuna it appeared as though he was rubbing his head, seeing as when he'd caught up to them he'd dropped down in front of them, scaring the shit out of both of them. Long story short, he'd ended up promising not to tell anyone that they'd shrieked like little girls in exchange for them buying him ramen.

Though happy about getting treated to ramen, the blond couldn't help but be annoyed at the fact that all he could hear from one of his ears was an extremely long 'beep.' Especially since the medicine that would relieve him of the nuisance was back in Tazuna's house.

'_Sometimes I hate how sensitive my ears are.'_ thought the blond demon as they entered the small village, his eyes narrowing when he took in the state it was in. "Damn, Ojii-san, you weren't kidding when you said you guys were broke." He spoke disbelievingly.

The village was small enough that one could walk through it in around five minutes. The houses appeared to be falling apart, some having a few holes in the walls or roofs and some being nothing but walls held together by ropes and logs. The stores were empty for the most part, their only produce being spoiled or rotten. The people weren't much better off than the rest of the village, looking emaciated and depressed, most having lost hope that things would get better.

"This is a slum district." Tazuna said, making the younger males turn to him. "The port cities are the only places where poverty isn't so obvious, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Those who don't have the money to live there are forced to move into one of the numerous settlements outside of the ports, surviving off the trash they dump outside the walls that surround the cities." He explained, leading them through the small hamlet.

"What do you mean they're forced to live in these dumps?" Kiba asked, irritated by the way everyone they passed struggled to ask them for any spare change. "Why don't they just get jobs at the ports?"

"Anyone working at one of the ports is an employee of Gato. What little he pays them is then cut in half, as he says that they have to pay a working fee, since he has the money to bring in workers from the other places to replace them." The answer made Naruto's eyebrows crease together as he looked back at everyone.

"Half of these people look like they were already brought in from elsewhere." he stated, gaining a quick glance from the aged bridge builder.

"So you noticed." It wasn't a question.

"It's easy to see that some are lighter skinned, while others are darker. Several have certain similarities with others; narrower eyes, larger noses, mannerisms, height." The amount of detail the blond had taken notice of impressed the other two. "Not to mention that some have accents."

Tazuna couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips as they exited the slum, heading towards the port that would soon come into view. "Gato has brought hundreds to this country, and when they get tired of working for him, they end up being stranded here with no way to return to their homes."

"Let's talk about something else; the more I hear about this guy the more pissed off I'm getting." Kiba said, unable to keep the aggravation from his voice, as they reached the port city. Naruto couldn't help but agree.

**To Be Continued...**

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait and for this chapter being mostly filler. Couldn't really decide on how to write it. I actually have a few scenes that were changed continuously or were taken out all together. That and the fact that Microsoft word won't let me edit anything anymore, and openoffice isn't compatible with my computer, and I think this chapter is finished for now. I would have liked to continue but I also think this is also a good place to stop for now.

Also, I'm holding a poll on my profile to see if I should restart JFO or not. If you have time, I'd like to know whether you think I should or not.

As always please review.


End file.
